When vengeance goes too far
by Francis456
Summary: When Serenity sticks up for Joey, she humiliates Kaiba to the point where he devastates her emotionally. However, when his conscience catches up with him, he must apologise to Serenity, but can he find her before she does something drastic to herself? Rat
1. Kaiba's humiliation

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 1; Kaiba's humiliation**

Disclaimer: I don't any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi and Shonen Jump.

It was a beautiful day in the city of Domino, Japan. The sun shone over the city warming the air and the people of Domino went about their daily business. At Domino High School, Yugi Moto, Tea Gardner, Joey Wheeler and Tristen Taylor were walking out of the premises after another boring day at school.

"Man," Tristen, said, "I thought the day would never end."

"You said it Tristen," Joey, said, "Man, dat was da most boring day of school ever."

Yugi said, "I dunno guys. It seemed as boring as usual to me."

Tea said, "Whatever, let's just enjoy the rest of this day. Anyway, we have to meet Serenity."

"Serenity," Tristen said in a loving tone. Ever since the whole Battle City incident, Tristen had been madly in love with Serenity. Duke Devlin was also madly in love with Serenity, but he'd been to busy with Dungeon Dice Monsters recently. Serenity had moved in with her brother now. It had taken some convincing to get her mother to agree to it, since she and Joey still had issues. However, in the end, Mrs Wheeler decided to let Serenity stay with Joey; mainly because of Serenity's endless nagging.

"Hey guys," came a familiar voice. It was Serenity and she ran towards the group.

"Hey sis," Joey, said, "So how's life treatin' ya?" Serenity ran into Joey's embrace.

"I'm fine Joey," Serenity, said, "By the way; I was hoping that you'd show me more about Duel Monsters. I really like the game."

"No problem sis," Joey, said, "I'll teach how ta play, though I don't know why. Didn't ya already beat dat Nezbitt guy during da Virtual World escapade?"

"Yeah," Serenity, admitted, "But that was just down to pure luck. I knew practically nothing about the game then."

"Well don't worry," Joey, said, "When you're done, you'll be up to my level of duelling."

"Which is the lowest level on all," came a voice that Joey didn't want to hear.

"Kaiba," Joey, hissed, "Whadda ya want Moneybags?"

"Just thought I'd make a point Wheeler," Kaiba, said, "Mutts like you are nothing more than third-rate wannabes with no real talent."

"Oh yeah," Joey, said, "Then how is it dat I made runner-up in Duellist Kingdom? How is it dat I made it so far in your Battle City tournament?"

"Easy Joey," Tea, said, "Just ignore him."

Kaiba said, "At Duellist Kingdom, you had Yugi to bail you out and I guess I overestimated the duelling skills of some of the people I invited to participate in the Battle City tournament. Anyone stupid enough to lose to you must have no idea how to plat Duel Monsters in the first place."

Joey growled and Tristen and Tea moved to restrain him from lashing out at Kaiba.

"Lemme at 'im," Joey, said, "I'll show him who's chump round here."

"Don't brother man," Tristen, said, "You'll just embarrass yourself."

Kaiba smirked and said, "Yeah, that's right mutt, hide behind your little geek squad."

Joey continued to struggle against Tristen and Tea's grip while Yugi just sighed. "Why must it always be like this between Joey and Kaiba?" he thought.

However, what happened next shocked everyone, including Kaiba. Serenity walked up to Kaiba and glared at him right in his face.

"You have some nerve insulting my brother like that," she said, "You've insulted my brother for quite a while now and I'm getting sick of it."

"I'm just pointing out the truth," Kaiba said smartly, after regaining his composure, "If you can't accept it, that's your problem Wheeler. Your brother's a loser."

"Says you," Serenity said, as her glare intensified, "I'm sick of those insults you overrated bastard."

Kaiba was shocked. No one had ever stood up to him like this before, not even Yugi.

"What did you call me?" he said, clearly outraged.

Serenity moved her face closer to Kaiba's and said, "I said that you're an overrated bastard. I think the main reason you put my brother down is because you know his potential as a duellist and you see him as a threat to your already damaged reputation and to make yourself feel big about yourself. Well I have news for you Seto Kaiba; you're not as high and mighty as you like to think you are. You're not a god. You are a human being just like everyone else. Maybe it's you that's the dog, the mutt and an overrated duellist to boot." To emphasize her point, she push Kaiba backwards. Kaiba was in too much shock to even realise what was happening.

"You're nothing but a bully," Serenity, continued, "You like making others feel like dirt just so that you can stay on top and keep everyone else beneath you and why? Just because you feel that you're the only one that has a right to be so great. Well I have more news for you; you're not the only rich guy in the world. I know of many people that are at least ten times richer than you'll ever be and maybe some of them are like you, rich snobs that are used to having everything handed to them and that don't know the meaning of the words, hard work. Face it Kaiba, you're an overrated big-shot that can't handle the truth. Your time as the number one duellist is done. You had your fun, now it's time that you just accept it and move on. However, you're so full of yourself that you think that only you have the right to be an elite duellist. I bet it you had your way, you'd be the only duellist in the world. You forget that you were an amateur at Duel Monsters at one point."

To say that Kaiba was enraged was an understatement, he was absolutely livid He had to admit that Serenity did have a lot of guts standing up to him like that. However, no one, not even Joey had ever called him overrated. It was a word that Kaiba despised and no one ever used to describe him, at least until now.

Serenity sighed. "I guess you'll never accept the truth. The world doesn't revolve around you Kaiba," she said, "You're only human and all humans die eventually, so you can't be the number one duellist forever."

"You dare speak to me like that," Kaiba, said angrily, "You have a lot of nerve speaking to me like that."

However, Serenity just said, "Like you said to Joey, I'm just pointing out the truth, the truth that you're just human. You've spent so much time with your precious machines that you forgot what it's like to be human. You may not have liked your stepfather, but I can plainly see that his personality has rubbed off on you. You're just like Gozaburo, a ruthless, heartless bastard that doesn't care who gets hurt, just so long as you get you want, the world can burn for all you care." In her anger, she pushed Kaiba again. Kaiba stumbled back and suddenly slipped and fell on his butt in a puddle that surrounded a fire hydrant that some kids had set off earlier that day.

"Why you…" Kaiba said, as he got up. He suddenly realised that passers by had stopped and stared at him. Apparently, Serenity's outburst had attracted a crowd. Feeling more humiliated than he'd ever felt before, Kaiba glared at Serenity with a look that would have probably have caused even Yami Marik to cower in fear if he had been there. Never before in his life had Seto Kaiba felt so humiliated. Even his defeats to Yugi didn't feel as humiliating as this. Pegasus's toon monsters making him look like an amateur wasn't as humiliating as this. His limo parked at the side of the hydrant and Kaiba entered it

"Get me out of here," Kaiba said in a deathly threatening tone to the driver.

"Y…y…yes sir," the driver said, startled at his master's threatening tone. He figured that something must've happened, but he knew that it was not his place to ask what, especially with the mood that Kaiba was in now

* * *

The group made up of Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristen all recovered from their shock over Serenity's outburst. Yami came out of the Millennium Puzzle in astral form (that ghost like form that only Yugi can see. If you watch the fifth episode of the Tenchi OVA series, then you'll see that Ryoko had a similar ability). He had a look of concern on his face.

"Wow sis," Joey, said, "You really put Moneybags in his place. I don't think I ever saw anyone stand up to Kaiba like dat before."

"Serenity said, "Well someone had to stand up to him. I can't stand the way he treats you Joey. No one deserves to be treated like that."

"Right on Serenity," Tristen, said, "You're my heroine."

"Oh it was nothing," Serenity, said, "I just lost my patience with Kaiba that's all."

Yami looked at Yugi and said, "I think that that was mistake."

"I think so to Yami," Yugi, said, "Serenity may have just made herself a new enemy in Kaiba."

Yami said, "I believe the modern-day term is awakened a sleeping giant."

Yugi nodded. "Only time will tell," he said. He was definitely concerned about Serenity's well-being. Kaiba was not-known to take blows to his pride lying down and Serenity just dealt a major blow to his pride. Yugi saw that Kaiba's level of humiliation far exceeded the levels of humiliation he felt when he was defeated by him and Pegasus combined. What frightened him the most was that Kaiba had horrible methods of gaining his revenge and with the level of humiliation he felt when Serenity had pushed him, Yugi was sure that the results would be devastating and maybe do irreparable damage to Serenity's emotional state.

* * *

Meanwhile in Kaiba's limo, Kaiba growled.

"You'll pay for this Wheelerette," he growled, "Mark my words, you'll pay dearly for this and when I'm through with you, you'll be begging me for forgiveness, but unfortunately for you, I have none."

The driver felt the hairs on his back stand on end. Though to him, Kaiba's words were incoherent, he knew that they weren't pleasant to whoever had humiliated him and now the poor driver was involuntarily overhearing his master complain to himself and plot his revenge.

"I shouldda taken my father's advice and become a dentist, but no, I had to become a chauffeur to the most bitter person in the world," he complained in his thoughts.

Kaiba began to plot his revenge. He didn't notice or care for his driver's discomfort. All that mattered was revenge, revenge against Serenity Wheeler for humiliating him. Serenity would feel his wrath and learn that no one humiliated him and got away with it. Kaiba was planning to devastate her to the point of irreparability, in which she'd never recover.

"No one makes a fool out of Seto Kaiba and gets away with it unscathed," he thought just as his limo reached Kaiba Corp headquarters

* * *

Author's notes- So Kaiba's now got it in for Serenity. Will Kaiba's vengeance go too far? Obviously, the title's the giveaway. Next chapter is where Kaiba puts his plan into action. However, just how devastated will Serenity be when she fall victim to Kaiba's plan? I clearly see Kaiba as the Vegeta of Yu-Gi-Oh and his rivalry with Yugi is like Goku and Vegeta's rivalry in Dragonball Z, only Kaiba's not out to kill Yugi like Vegeta's out to kill Goku. I just thought that I'd clear up the whole Joey/Kaiba rivalry. I honestly feel that Kaiba secretly knows how good Joey is and that he's always putting him down because he sees him as a threat to his duelling status and in my opinion, Joey should be grateful that he lost his duel to Kaiba in the Battle City Finals Saga because if he had won, who knows what Kaiba would've done in he had have won because it's bad enough that Yugi managed to beat him, for Joey to have knocked his rank down to third best duellist would probably be unbearable. Anyway, in my Tenchi in Tokyo/Yu-Gi-Oh crossover series, Kaiba will have to deal with the fact that there are two people he can't beat and to top it off, Yugi (from Tenchi in Tokyo) was able to beat Kaiba's greatest rival, Yugi Moto, which probably will aggravate him. Anyway, till next time. 


	2. Sweet, sweet revenge

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 2: Sweet, sweet revenge**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, and as I just found out Konami and Shueisha comics.

Seto Kaiba was sitting in his office ponder on the previous day's events. Serenity Wheeler, the girl that had blatantly humiliated him; how he cringed at the mere thought of her name. How dare she talk to him like that, him Seto Kaiba, perhaps the richest and most influential person in all of Japan outside of royalty and politics. He now pondered on how to get his revenge. Serenity had humiliated him more than Yugi and Pegasus ever did combined. How in the short space of time between him being humiliated right up to the present moment in time he had grown to hate Serenity more than he ever hated her brother and Yugi combined.

"Overrated," he thought, "No one calls me overrated. Just who does she think she is undermining my duelling skills when she isn't even a proper duellist." He slammed his fist on his desk. Why did he feel this much humiliation? Was it because Serenity was a girl or was it because she was five years younger than him. Maybe it was both, but Kaiba was in too much of a rage over his humiliation to ponder on the reasons why.

"Roland," Kaiba said, after he picked up the phone.

"Yes Mister Kaiba," Roland's voice came over the phone, "What can I do for you?"

"Get Hobson on the line," Kaiba, said, "I have a bit of an assignment for him."

"Certainly sir," Roland said, his uneasiness was evident in his voice, but Kaiba was too caught up in his thoughts of revenge to notice or even care. An evil grin crept onto his face. "Let's see you handle this Wheelerette," he thought, "And when I'm done with you, you'll see death as a salvation from the misery that I will put you through."

Little did Kaiba know that his little brother, Mokuba had seen the whole thing through a gap in the door. Mokuba didn't know what his brother was planning, but he had a good idea that it had something to do with his humiliation the previous day.

"Oh Seto," Mokuba, thought, "Please, oh please don't take this too far." Mokuba really liked Serenity and found her quite cheerful to be around. He remembered how Joey entered the Duellist Kingdom tournament just to win the prize money so that Serenity could have her eye operation. As it turned out, Serenity had weak eyes since birth. Mokuba could really sympathise with Joey. He may sound and act like a common street punk at times, but when it came to his sister, it was like he was a whole new person. Mokuba really admired Joey and unlike his brother, he admitted that Joey was a good duellist and he had to admit that Joey almost beat Kaiba at Battle City. If it hadn't have been for Kaiba's final trap card, Joey would've won.

* * *

The next day at Domino Middle School, the teacher of the class in Rom 33A was handing out test results. Serenity Wheeler sat nervously awaiting her test results. This test was a very important one. It counted for the whole year and failure meant that you were held back. The teacher handed Serenity her paper.

"Too much studying, eh Serenity," the teacher said, "I'm very disappointed in you."

"Huh?" Serenity, said, "What do you mean?"

"Just look at the paper dear," the teacher said.

Serenity looked at the paper and almost choked. She had gotten an F, the lowest grade and it also since F was the first letter in the word, fail, many people had made the F grade as the abbreviation for failure (I'm just guessing), which was true in a way, but that's not why Serenity was so shocked. What shocked her was that she hadn't gotten a single answer right. She knew that it was a mistake. Sure she had studied for the test, but she hadn't over-studied. She knew that she had gotten most of the answers right and yet the paper in front of her said otherwise.

"Mrs Ariumi," Serenity, said, "I believe my test was evaluated wrong."

"I highly doubt that," Mrs Ariumi, protested, "Computers evaluate at those tests and we all know that computers don't make mistakes."

Serenity wanted to protest, but she knew that it was pointless. She looked at her test paper again and gasped. Everything wasn't as she remembered it. The answers were different from the ones she had put down. The only explanation she could think of was that someone had switched papers with her. However, she knew everyone in the class and none of them fitted the profile of someone that would cheat and the handwriting on the paper was far too professional looking to have been done by another student. Serenity's first thought was that one of the teachers was out to flunk her, but she remembered that she adored all her teachers and they adored her, well apart from her gym coach, but he only made her miserable because he felt that she was too lazy and was getting little exercise. He'd have nothing to gain from doing this.

* * *

Outside the school building, a limo pulled up on the road outside and the back door window opened. Seto Kaiba looked at a window where he could plainly see Serenity upset over her test results.

"Excellent," he thought, "However, this is just the beginning."

He took out his cell phone and called Hobson.

"Hello Hobson," Kaiba, said, "Excellent work."

"Thank you Mister Kaiba," came Hobson's voice.

"I'm impressed," Kaiba, said, "Just what did you do?"

"Oh I just had some men break into the school last night and switch Miss Wheeler's paper was one that I had… acquired and did myself and then I hacked into the school's network and changed her grade as well as the stored test results," Hobson said.

"Excellent work Hobson," Kaiba, complimented, "Now here's you next assignment…"

The limo driver just sighed. Once again, he was involuntarily listening to his master talking about revenge, only this time he heard every word that was being said, though he just kept his eyes on the road and pretended not to be listening in. The driver thought that Kaiba was a ruthless cold-hearted tyrant that just did whatever it took to get his way. He wanted to quit his job, but unfortunately, he had a family to look out for and this job earned him the most pay.

"Back to Kaiba Corp," Kaiba said after he'd finished talking to Hobson on his cell phone.

"Yes sir," the driver said. "You ruthless cold-hearted stuck-up punk," he added in his thoughts.

"This is just the beginning Wheelerette," Kaiba, thought, "Very soon, your life will be in ruins beyond repair and I'll show you that I never tolerate those who humiliate me."

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Mrs Wheeler was coming home from the mall after a days shopping. Since Serenity decided that she wanted to stay with Joey, Mrs Wheeler had decided to move back into Domino in order to keep an eye on things between her son and daughter. She still felt uneasy about leaving Serenity with Joey. It was a fact that she never got along with Joey. Joey blamed her for the divorce and she saw Joey as a younger version of her former husband, who was still back in New York doing who knows what. Not that she cared about her ex. He had been a drunken slob that got violent whenever he was drunk. She knew that it was unfair to criticise her son, but from what she saw, he was heading down the same road as his father, which was why she arranged for one parent to have one child. Naturally, she chose Serenity while her husband got Joey. Now Joey hated her because he saw her as the person that ruined his life with his sister.

When she arrived home she found a small bald man standing at the gate to her house. He wore a pair of glasses and a small stereotypical butler suit. What made Mrs Wheeler feel uneasy about him was that standing behind him were six tough-looking men dressed in grey business suits and sunglasses.

"Are you Mrs Mary Wheeler?" the short man asked.

"Yes," Mrs Wheeler, replied, "Why do you want to know?"

"Nothing personal ma'am," the short man said, "We have orders." He then snapped his fingers and the six musclemen advanced on Mrs Wheeler.

"Get away from me," Mrs Wheeler, said, "Help, Police!" She turned and tried to run, but she slipped and fell flat on her stomach. The six men were upon and the short man said, "Remember, don't kill her, just beat her up till she loses consciousness. I'll call for the ambulance." The six men nodded and started to beat on Mrs Wheeler.

* * *

Serenity had just gotten home from school. She was upset over her test results. Now she was in trouble because now she couldn't move on to the next grade and probably would have to repeat the one she was in just now. Not that is was the end of the world, it did mean that Serenity's plans would have to be postponed. What upset Serenity the most was the fact that it seemed that an adult and not a fellow student had been responsible. The handwriting on her fake paper looked too complex to have been done be someone of her age.

"Hey sis," came Joey's voice as she entered the apartment.

"Hey Joey," Serenity said in an upset tone.

"What's up," Joey, said, "Did somethin' happen at school?"

"I got an F in my test today," Serenity, said, "Yes, I did and the thing is, the paper I was handed out wasn't even mine."

Joey said, "Explain."

"Well," Serenity, began, "I remember all my answers and my workings, but when I got the paper out, the answers were different and the handwriting wasn't even mines. At first I thought that it was another person in the class, but no one in my class fits the profile of a cheater and second of all, the handwriting seemed far too complex to have been written by a person of my age."

"Wow," Joey, said, "If you think dat's upsettin', you should see yer room."

Serenity said, "Why?"

Joey said, "Someone must've busted in while we were at school."

Serenity rushed to her room and gasped as soon as she stepped into it. Everything was upturned and overturned. Her possessions were destroyed, including a locket that was very special to her.

"My locket," she said, "Mom gave my that for my ninth birthday."

The locket lay on the floor Small shards of glass lay scattered round it and the picture in the locket, which was of Serenity and her mother had been torn and crumpled. However, what devastated Serenity the most was when she looked beyond the now worthless locket.

"My diary," she said.

She went up to a green book with a white sheet of paper on the front that read, "Serenity Wheeler's Diary". The pages had been torn out and bits of torn paper littered area round the book.

Joey said, "Dis was the only room dey hit."

"My room," Serenity, said, "My, locket, my diary, all ruined. I don't think this was burglary, this was just an attack on me. Nothing's been stolen, everything's been destroyed."

Joey said, "But who would want to do some…" He stopped as the realisation hit him. "Kaiba," he growled, "Dat snake in the grass, I'll kill 'im for dis."

Suddenly the phone rang and Joey left to go answer it, leaving Serenity alone.

Serenity couldn't believe it. First the test at school and now someone broke into her room and destroyed all her possessions, including the two she treasured the most, her locket and her diary. She wrote down all her private thoughts in her diary and she kept her locket as a keepsake from her mother. Unlike Joey, she didn't hate her mother. She loved her mother very much, though she still remembered how she took her away from Joey, but being with her for so long meant that Serenity had heard her mother's side of the story and now understood her better than Joey, but that didn't mean to say she hated Joey. Serenity had known that no matter how much like her father Joey could've became, his love for her would all remain as part of him. She inspired him and was the reason he was such a good duellist.

Joey came back into the room and his expression wasn't a happy one. He looked at Serenity with sadness in his eyes. Serenity looked at Joey worryingly.

"What is it?" she said, "What's happened?"

"Ma's in the hospital," Joey, replied, "They say dat someone called saying that they saw a group a guys beating her up. For what I don't know.

Serenity suddenly felt the weight of her legs give way and she fell to the floor. Luckily Joey caught her.

"Mom," Serenity, said, "No, this isn't happening to me. Why me? I'm sorry Joey, I really am. You may hate mom, but I don't. I can't believe that someone would do something like that to her."

"Me neither," Joey said as he embraced his little sister and gave her a shoulder to cry on. As much as he hated his mother, he knew how Serenity felt about her and to some degree he was worried as well, after all the woman was his mother. No matter how much Joey hated her, at the end of the day, she was still his mother and not even he hated her so much to beat her up.

"I'll go with ya sis," Joey, said, "Just for you dough."

"Thanks Joey," Serenity said.

* * *

Author's notes: Wow, great huh? So first Kaiba has the test results of Serenity's test changed, has her room demolished and then has her mother beaten up. How much longer will Kaiba keep this up before his conscience catches up with him and what else has Kaiba in store for Serenity? Okay, just to clear a few things up. First off Joey has a Brooklyn accent and those spelling errors that keep occurring in his speech aren't errors at all. It's just the way Joey talks like "Dat's alright", dat meaning that. Second of all, about Kaiba's revenge plan. For that, I was suffering a bit from the dreaded Writer's Block. Rearranging Serenity's test results, destroying her room, not to mention her two most treasured possession and having her mother beaten up was all I could think of. Don't worry though. Next chapter is where Joey gets the same treatment as his mother and Kaiba reveals himself to Joey with a message for him to give to Serenity, anyway, till next time. 


	3. Serenity devastated

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 3: Serenity devastated**

Disclaimer- I don't own the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

Clouds had been gathering above the city of Domino all day and now they let loose their water load. The rain came down in torrents and lightning lit up the sky. After the recent heat wave that had gripped the city, the coming of the rain announced its end. However, the depressing weather fitted the mood of Serenity and Joey Wheeler, who were at the hospital seeing if their mother, who had been admitted there after apparently being beaten was.

Joey, even though he hated his mother, blaming her for separating him and Serenity was still worried. After all, despite the fact that she had a negative impact on Joey's life, she was still his mother, plus even Joey didn't hate her to the point where he wanted her dead. Besides, he knew how Serenity felt about her and despite the fact that it made him uneasy, he decided to do what was best for his sister.

Serenity on the other hand was absolutely devastated. After the whole incident at school in which someone had pretty much swapped their test paper with hers, seeing her room and most treasured possessions trashed and now this, she had done a pretty good job at fighting back her tears, but she was breaking point now and her tears were threatening to flow freely.

"Be strong Serenity," Joey, said, "I'm sure ma'll be alright."

"I'll try Joey," Serenity, replied, "But it's very hard for me."

Joey looked at Serenity. She was basically an emotional wreck. Joey was guessing that Kaiba was behind this since Serenity had pretty much humiliated him a few days earlier. Joey growled. Kaiba had gone too far. Sure he expected Kaiba to do something in retaliation for what Serenity did to him, but he never imagined that Kaiba would take it this far. Serenity was only thirteen going on fourteen-years-old and Kaiba was eighteen.

"You'll pay for dis rich boy," Joey, thought, "Mark my words, if Serenity becomes suicidal, I won't rest till I've run ya inta bankruptcy and bring yer Kaiba Corp building down with ma own two hands."

* * *

In the lobby, Yugi, Tristen and Tea arrived.

"So why's Joey here?" Tristen, said, "Did something happen to him?"

"I hope not," Yugi said.

"There he is," Tea said.

Joey and Serenity joined their friends and told them what had happened, including Serenity's fixed results and the wrecking of her room.

"Kaiba," Yami hissed, as he appeared beside Yugi, "I bet that it was him."

"Now that's not fair to jump to conclusions," Yugi protested.

"You saw how Serenity humiliated him," Yami, said, "This is no doubt part of his revenge plan, though I was really hoping that he wouldn't take it this far."

* * *

Later, Joey and Serenity sat in Mrs Wheeler's room. Mrs Wheeler was unconscious and Serenity looked at her. Joey could see that Serenity was absolutely crushed. He had to give her credit though. So far, she did a good job at holding it all back, but he knew that she couldn't keep it up for much longer. He was relieved when the doctor said that his mother hadn't suffered any permanent or serious injuries. In fact, she could leave in a few days provided she woke up.

Back in the lobby, Yugi, Tristen and Tea waited. Tristen paced the length of the seats impatiently with Yugi and Tea sat waiting anxiously. Tea was getting annoyed with Tristen's pacing. However, he wasn't attracting attention since it was a hospital they were in and everyone just assumed that he was impatiently awaiting news on a loved one.

"Will you stop that?" Tea, said, "It's getting dead annoying."

"I can't help it," Tristen, protested, "Joey's been gone for an hour and Serenity's almost crying. I can't take it."

"Well at least sit down," Tea, said, "There's a few magazines for you to read." She handed Tristen a magazine about cars. Tristen reluctantly took it and sat down. However, his impatience was still pretty much evident on his face.

Yugi looked in the direction that Joey took Serenity off in. He was worried about Joey. He knew that Joey would automatically assume that Kaiba was involved and would do something stupid, not that he could blame him. Yugi had a feeling that it was Kaiba as well, but unlike Yami, he refused to believe it without proof. Yugi liked to think of Kaiba as a friend, but it was obvious that Kaiba didn't feel the same way, which slightly upset Yugi. At least Mokuba felt differently. However, Yugi wonder that if it was Kaiba, did Mokuba know about it and more importantly, was he in on it? Yugi doubted it. True, Mokuba stuck by his brother even though Kaiba had shown his true colours in his brother's presence before. Blood's thicker than water, Yugi figured that that was true with the way Mokuba defended his brother. However, even Mokuba had his limits, didn't he? Mokuba was a nice kid and it seemed that if Kaiba was planning something evil, he would keep his brother in the dark.

Anyway, Yugi decided that he'd only believe that it was Kaiba if he was given actual proof.

"Sometimes you can be too forgiving for your own good Yugi," Yami thought.

"I heard that," Yugi, said, "Don't forget, I can read your thoughts."

Yami just groaned.

* * *

Back in Mrs Wheeler's room, Joey got up and said, "I need some fresh air sis, can I leave you?"

Serenity looked at her brother and said, "Be back soon Joey, I don't know what I'll do without you."

Joey smiled.

"Relax sis," he said, "I'll only be gone a few minutes. Besides, if ma wakes up, I doubt she'd be happy to see me."

Serenity said, "I guess." She knew of Joey and her mother's feelings towards each other. However, despite the fact that she'd been with her mother since she was six, she still loved her brother. He was a big inspiration to her. Whenever she felt down in the past, she always thought of Joey and it helped her get through those hard times. However, this time was different. One of her other family members was hurt and even the doctor's assurances weren't enough to console her. She felt as if her world was crumbling down around her and now her tears were almost at the point where they'd flow freely.

* * *

Joey walked outside and into the cover of the hospital parking lot. It was still raining and he had no intentions of getting soaked. He needed to think things out. He was positive that Kaiba was the one behind this. Being the pride-filled guy Kaiba was, Joey knew that he would've tried to do something to Serenity in retaliation for his humiliation, but he never imagined that he'd go this far, though he had known that Kaiba did have the resources. He was the richest person in the city and was head of the world's greatest gaming corporation. With that much power at his disposal, plus his attitude, Joey could honestly said that Kaiba could've easily caused Serenity to disappear off the face of the Earth and erase all evidence of her existence and if he could've done that, then hacking into a school's computer network and changing a grade, as well as getting someone to give Serenity a false test paper was a piece of cake.

"Are you Joey Wheeler?" came a voice.

"Who wants ta know," Joey said as he turned round and saw the same short bald man that his mother had seen along with the same six musclemen dressed in business suits. However, unlike his mother, Joey knew who he was.

"You're Hobson right, Kaiba's butler?" he said.

"Very perspective Mr Wheeler," the small man said, "Nothing personal though, we're just following Mr Kaiba's orders."

"So it was that snake," Joey, growled, "I knew it all along."

Hobson snapped his fingers and the six musclemen advanced on Joey. Joey stood his ground and threw a punch at the nearest guy, but the guy just grabbed Joey by the wrist and the others moved in and started punching and kicking him. Joey tried to fight back, but there were six of them and only one of him, though he did manage to land a knee-blow into one of the men's… sensitive area (I bet you already know what I mean). However, Joey was overwhelmed, but suddenly, when he thought that he was going to get beaten to death, Joey heard Hobson snap his fingers. The six musclemen stopped and moved away from Joey, one of them, the one that had received the knee-blow glared at him, as he limped backwards.

"Well, well, well," a new voice said, a voice that Joey despised, "It seems that the mutt has finally been put in his place."

"Kaiba you heartless bastard," Joey, said, "I knew it was you all along."

Kaiba just smiled and said, "Did you now Wheeler? You'd need a brain for that and last time I checked, he have none."

"Mark my words Kaiba," Joey, said gritting his teeth, "You'll regret what you did to my sister and when I'm through with you, you'll be dealing with bankruptcy and I'll take great pleasure in rippin' Kaiba Corp headquarters apart with my bear hands. You'll be sorry."

Kaiba just laughed.

"Oh really Wheeler," he boasted, "You're in no position to threaten me. I just came here so that I could give you a message for that whore of a sister of yours. Tell her that I'll not be satisfied until she's broken beyond repair and that if she never wanted this then she should've never have stuck her nose where it doesn't belong." He kicked Joey in the stomach just for good measure.

"Let's go," he said, "I've been around this dog so much that I think I may have gotten some of its fleas all over me."

Hobson and the six musclemen followed Kaiba out of the parking lot. "Dat damn Kaiba," Joey, said, "He'll regret dis. I'll make sure of it." He got to his feet and limped back to the hospital. He ached all over and his face was a mess. He figured that he had several broken ribs and a broken nose. His left eye was swollen and was almost completely closed. He managed to reach the corridor when he collapsed on the floor right in front of a hospital worker, who was just going home.

* * *

Meanwhile, Serenity was getting worried about Joey. He'd been gone for a full half-hour and Serenity was now getting worried. At first Serenity thought that he had left, not wanting to be there when their mother woke up, but she quickly dismissed the thought, knowing that he wouldn't put his hatred for his mother before the love he had for her. Joey wouldn't abandon her. Despite the fact he hated his mother, he was willing to put it aside for Serenity's sake.

Suddenly, a doctor came in and said, "Miss Wheeler."

"Yeah," Serenity, said, "I'm her."

The doctor looked at Serenity sadly. Serenity gasped, fearing that her mother was dying and that the doctors had made a mistake and had just realised it.

"I'm afraid I have bad news concerning your brother," the doctor said, "Apparent, someone attacked him out in the parking lot. One of our staff who'd just finished his shift found him lying in the corridor while on his way to the parking lot. We assume that he came from there."

"No," Serenity said. This was all she needed. First the test score, then her room, her possession, her mother and now her brother. Kaiba couldn't really have felt that humiliated when she pushed him, did he? Sure, she was aware that as the richest guy in Domino and the owner of the World's biggest gaming corporation, he had the resources to pull off far worse revenge tactics. He could've had her killed and disappear and he even had the resources to destroy all evidence of her existence. However, instead he chose to devastate her emotionally and now, she was emotionally devastated. The tears that she'd held back since discovering her destroyed possessions now flowed freely.

"Joey…" she cried, "JJJJOOOOEEEEYYYY!"

She ran out of the room and into the lobby where Yugi, Tristen and were still waiting for news.

"Serenity," Tristen, said, "What's up?"

"Joey's been… Joey's been…," Serenity tried to say, but she suddenly just latched onto Tristen and cried on his shoulder.

"Joey had a fight with his mom?" Tristen said embracing Serenity. Since he had hung around with Joey the longest, he knew more about the situation between Joey and his mother better than anyone else aside from Serenity.

"You misunderstand," the doctor, the same doctor that told Serenity of Joey's predicament said as he entered the lobby, "Mr Wheeler was apparently attacked in the parking lot."

"The parking lot," Tea, said, "What was he doing there?"

"He went out to get a breath of air…" Serenity managed to say before burying her head in Tristen's chest.

"Kaiba," Yami, growled, "He's reached a whole new low."

Yugi just sighed. There was no use denying it anymore. Everything that had happened that day had made Serenity upset and from what the evidence suggested, it was clear that it was the culprit's intention to completely devastate Serenity and Kaiba was the only person that they knew of who was out to get her. After all, to think that a guy like Kaiba wouldn't be out for revenge after suffering a humiliation like the one he suffered would be downright foolish. Serenity was now completely devastated. Though it was obvious that Joey and Mrs Wheeler would recover, the damage done to Serenity's emotion was great. Not very many people knew that Serenity's emotional state was always on the brink of breaking down ever since she and Joey were separated. Since then, she had been shy and because of this, she failed to make friends. She had been lonely. Sometimes, her classmates would offer her their friendship, but she turned them down out of fear that they'd eventually reject her because of her quiet nature.

Yami took over Yugi's body

"KKKKKAAAAAIIIIIBBBBBAAAAA!" he yelled, startling everyone in the room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kaiba stood in the shadow of a support pillar in the lobby. Even he was startled at Yami's outburst, though he believed that it was Yugi. Luckily for him, having his scare didn't alert the others to his presence. He had come to see Serenity's state and it was better than he'd hoped for. He watched as Yami, Tristen and Tea led Serenity back towards her mother's room. He smirked and then walked towards the exit, but as he was leaving, he looked back at the corridor that the "geek squad" had taken Serenity down and a look of concern started to form on his face. However, he quickly shook his head.

"What was that?" he thought, "This is what I wanted. Time to go and make sure that she never recovers from this."

However, even as he walked towards his waiting limo, part of him was beginning to become concerned about Serenity and guilt began invading Kaiba's mind, though at the moment, he was able to shake it off, but as time progressed it was becoming more and more difficult.

* * *

Author's notes: Now Kaiba's conscience is beginning to catch up with him. Will he be able to realise that he's made a mistake and apologise to not just Serenity, but Joey as well? (As if Joey would forgive him). Next chapter, Kaiba's conscience continues to haunt him and to make matters worse, Mokuba finds out and decides that enough's enough and tell his brother exactly what he thinks of him. To clarify Serenity being easily devastated, as I said before, when it came to planning what Kaiba would do in retaliation for his humiliation, I suffered from Writer's Block and thought I'd work my way round it by using Serenity's past when she was separated from Joey as an explanation. By the way, for those of you who don't know who Hobson is, Hobson is Kaiba's butler. He made a brief appearance in the first episode when Kaiba sent for Solomon and later on he was seen in Noah's virtual flashbacks during the Noah Saga and Gozaburo and Kaiba addressed him as Hobson and since he was the one that Kaiba sent to get Solomon, I felt that he'd make the perfect guy to do Kaiba's dirty work because in my opinion, Roland doesn't seem the type that would do something like that and have no regrets afterwards . 


	4. Mokuba's desertion

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 4: Mokuba's desertion **

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

Kaiba sat in his office at the top of Kaiba Corp headquarters. He was planning or at least trying to plan the grand finale for his plan on getting even with Serenity after she humiliated him. However, for some reason, he couldn't think straight. Since he secretly visited the city hospital the previous day and saw Serenity's state for himself, something was eating away at him. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't shake it off, at least not anymore.

"Why am I feeling like this?" he asked no one in particular.

"It's called guilt," a voice inside his head said.

Kaiba was shocked. Where had that come from? The voice sounded like his own, but it didn't sound like something he'd say or even feel for that matter. He knew what guilt was and in his view, it was a feeling he never felt unless it had to do with Mokuba. Apart from that, he never felt guilty over anyone's situation.

"Do you honestly think that Seto?" the voice came.

Kaiba shook his head.

"I'm hearing things," he concluded.

However, even as he said it, he began to wonder if the voice, whether it was imaginary or not had a point. Did he really feel guilty over Serenity's predicament? Of course not, he was Seto Kaiba, he'd done in a lot of people emotionally and he had no problems sleeping at night, so why should Serenity be any different. Kaiba smirked and asked himself that.

"Because she was younger than all you're previous victims," the voice came again, "She's at least five years younger than you and you went further than you ever went before with your previous victims when you had her mother and brother beaten up."

"Not again," Kaiba, thought, "I must be imagining things."

"I'm your conscience," the voice said, "And no, consciences don't operating with that stereotypical angel/devil thing."

"I'm not hearing this," Kaiba said.

"You can't shut me out forever Seto," his conscience said, "Soon my nagging will become too much for you."

"I don't know who or what you are," Kaiba, said, "But I have no conscience. If I ever had one then it died when Gozaburo adopted me."

"Mr Kaiba," came a voice, "Are you feeling alright sir?" Kaiba glared at the owner of the voice, which belonged to his secretary. The woman cowered in fear and dropped the papers she was holding. Kaiba just raised an eyebrow.

"What do you want Elaine and it better not by a raise?" Kaiba said.

"No sir," Elaine, said, "It's just that your brother's here and he wants to see you right away." She was on the floor picking up the papers she dropped.

"A little help would be appreciated," she thought, "But no, you don't help out because you're Seto Kaiba, the biggest pain in the ass the world's ever seen."

"You may tell Mokuba that I'm too busy right now," Kaiba said.

"I'm afraid that he insisted," Elaine, said, "He didn't look very happy; in fact he looked downright furious."

Kaiba was surprised at this. Mokuba never bothered him at work unless it was something important and he most certainly was never furious. Sure, Kaiba admitted that his work took up most of his time, but he thought that Mokuba understood that it was for his benefit as well as his brother's. With him in turmoil over what he did to Serenity, this was all he needed.

"Send him in," Kaiba, said, "And in future, don't ever come in without knocking and when I tell you to come in or next time, you're fired."

"Yes sir," Elaine said.

She left and a few second later, the door to Kaiba's office flew open and in stormed Mokuba, who looked more furious than Kaiba had ever seen him. Kaiba was surprised and a bit intimidated. Mokuba was never like this. Kaiba guessed that this had to do with more than just the fact that he never had enough time for him.

"How could you Seto?" Mokuba said quietly.

"Huh?" Kaiba, said, "Mokuba, what is the meaning of this and what's up with you?"

"HOW COULD YOU SETO!" Mokuba yelled, glaring at his brother with hatred that Kaiba never dreamed his brother was capable off. Sure Kaiba knew that Mokuba was capable of hatred, he was human after all, but he never dreamed Mokuba could hate as much as he did now and to make matters worse, this hatred was directed at him.

"What did I do?" Kaiba said, unable to comprehend why Mokuba was anger at him.

"Serenity," Mokuba, said, "How could you do that to her? She's only years older than me and you devastated her."

Kaiba was shocked. How did Mokuba know? Could Hobson have let it slip? Mokuba wasn't supposed to know about it. In fact, Mokuba didn't know a lot of things that he did. Mokuba didn't know how he managed to get the three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards from their original owners. One of those people had been a rich property tycoon gone bankrupt because of Kaiba. Kaiba had driven the second person to suicide and he had hired the mafia to assassinate the third. Mokuba didn't know about that and he even wasn't supposed to know about what he did to Solomon Moto, Yugi's grandfather, but he'd shown up in the middle of Kaiba and Yugi's first duel just to see him lose.

"She humiliated me," Kaiba eventually said.

"It's always about your pride Seto," Mokuba, said, "I have defended you from all those accusations long enough and to tell you the truth, I'm sick of it. I can see why Yugi and the others would say you're a heartless, ruthless jerk and I have defended you countless times and not once did I ever get a "Thank you Mokuba," or Thanks for sticking up for me". You stuck up for me against bullies and I thanked you, but when the situation was reversed, you ignored me. Even when I encourage you during your duels, you ignore me as if I don't exist. I'm sorry Seto, but I can't defend you from this. What you did to Serenity could be irreparable. You definitely went too far. In the past when I defended you, I always drew where the line was drawn and you just stepped over it. You could've humiliated her back, but instead you decided to completely devastate her and why? Just because she highlighted the truth."

Kaiba said, "Mokuba…"

"I'm not done Seto," Mokuba, interrupted, "In case you're wondering how I know about Serenity, I'll tell you. You see, Tristen called up the mansion looking for you and told me. I was going to defend you like I normally do, but when he told me how devastated Serenity was, I just couldn't. I realised that you had gone too far. You're so self-centred Seto. You have no concept of other people or their pasts. We're not the only ones with a tragic past you know. Serenity and Joey were separated as children due to their parents' divorce and their mother arranged for Serenity to go with her and Joey to stay with their dad. Since then, Serenity's emotional state has been very unstable. She was quite and shy and because of it, she never had any friends. Now she has friends, but the damage to her emotional state was already done and you just made it worse Seto. Unlike you, I listen to what others have to say. You however don't want to hear it. Gozaburo's changed you Seto. I remember the days we spent together. We may have hated the orphanage, but at least we had each other. You even smiled back then, but when Gozaburo came, you changed. You may hate his guts and you may have been the architect of his fall from grace, but I bet he's happy in the knowledge that you became just like him. You're ruthless just like he was. You use the same tactics he used. You might as well be a younger version of him."

"Enough Mokuba!" Kaiba said sharply. If it was the one thing he hated, it was people comparing him to his stepfather. He would not have any of that, even if it was from his own brother.

"Why?" Mokuba, said, "Because it's the truth. You can't stand the truth; therefore it has to be a pack of lies. Serenity only highlighted the truth. Okay, so maybe, she did go too far with that overrated comment, but that's not the point. The point is, you utterly crushed her. You're not the Seto I used to know. I always believed that he was still somewhere inside you somewhere , but I can honestly say that my hope was for naught. And Serenity's not the only one you hurt. You hurt Yugi's grandpa and Yugi during your second match, in fact if I heard correctly, you cheated during that match just to win."

"I did it for you Mokuba," Kaiba, said, "I had lost that match, I would've lost my only chance at rescuing you from Pegasus."

"Is that so?" Mokuba, said, "Or were you just wanting to beat Pegasus just to prove that you were better at Duel Monsters than its creator? Maybe you were only using me as an excuse, just as you used me as a scapegoat for the Big Five when you intentionally let your plan to overthrow him come to his attention. At the time, I had no idea of your plan, but I knew that it was part of your scheme to get rid of Gozaburo, so I played along. Why didn't you tell me Seto? Can't you trust me to keep a secret? I may have guessed your motives, but I still felt hurt by what you said. Just what gave you the right to hurt Yugi's grandpa anyway? His Blue Eyes White Dragon card was a gift to him from a friend whose life he saved, so it was his most valuable treasure because it reminded him of his friend and you knew this, yet you tore it anyway just because it was used against you. Again, it was just to heal your wounded pride. As much as I hate to admit it, but when I think about it now, Yugi gave you exactly what you deserved and after Duellist Kingdom, Arthur Hawkins, Yugi's grandpa's friend who gave him the Blue Eyes card was in town and his granddaughter, who misunderstood the situation came looking for it. I had the unfortunate task of telling both Arthur and Rebecca, his granddaughter just who was responsible for the card's current state in the first place."

Kaiba was shocked. Never had Mokuba spoken to him like this before. He'd heard it all before from the "geek squad", as he had dubbed Yugi and his friends, but never from his own brother.

"Enough," Kaiba, said, "Mokuba, I'm very busy right now…"

"I'M NOT DONE YET!" Mokuba, yelled, "All Yugi and his friends have done for us is try to be nice and you always drive them away. Yugi helped us out and not once have I ever heard you say thank you. If you had just accepted the fact that he had you beat during your rematch, then I'm sure he would've rescued me, but no. It's all about pride to you. Yugi was right. You're just fill of nothing but anger and hate towards the world. What did the world ever do to earn your hatred? You clearly hate the world and treat games as if they were all-out war. Just how many of your opponents you defeated before you faced Yugi gave up playing Duel Monsters because of you?"

Kaiba couldn't answer, but being the pride-filled person he was, he just said, "Not my problem."

"See," Mokuba, said, "You don't care. It's like you're still anger at what Gozaburo did to you and revenge on him wasn't enough. Now you take your anger out on the world because getting rid of Gozaburo wasn't enough, so you decide to just target innocent people that had absolutely nothing to do with Gozaburo. I guess it's true that revenge turns you into what you set out to destroy. Gozaburo's gone and thanks to Noah, he's gone for good, but his legacy lives on in you."

Kaiba said, "Enough Mokuba, that's enough."

Truth be told, Kaiba was on the brink of tears, but he refused to cry. He saw crying as a sign of weakness and he was aware that if Mokuba kept rambling on then he would eventually lose it and cry uncontrollably. Hearing this from anyone else would've probably have added that unlucky person to Kaiba's list of people he hated, but from the mouth of his brother was more than he could bear.

"And what about me Seto?" Mokuba, said, "What about me huh? What do you care about more, me or duelling?"

"What?" Kaiba, said, "What are you trying to insinuate?"

"That care more about your former title than you do about me," Mokuba, said, "Don't think I didn't notice it at Battle City. All you cared about were the God Cards. You were willing to just leave with only seven duellists and you clearly had no regard for people's safety, which you could've been arrested for. I saw the duel between Mai and Marik. Mai could've been killed and you didn't do a thing about it. Yugi got in the way of Ra's attack, which should've earned him a disqualification, but you told Roland to let it slip since he had Slifer. When Marik caused Mai to lapse into a coma and Bakura ended up injured, you were willing to just let them die. I bet if Marik had killed Mai instead of sending her to the Shadow Realm or whatever it's called, you probably wouldn't have cared less that we'd have had a murderer on board. What if I was kidnapped and you had one last chance to reclaim your title, but if you lost or didn't show up then you would've lost the chance to regain your status forever and the kidnappers threatened to kill if you went ahead with the duel?"

Kaiba was at a loss for words. He had really never considered that scenario as a possibility, though he had to admit that as unlikely as it sounded, it could happen someday and the thing was, he didn't have a true answer.

"You don't have to answer that," Mokuba, said, "I can already guess what it'll be and I have to say that I'm shocked. What happens when you run out of people to take your rage out on and I'm the only one left or if I became a better duellist than you, not that that'll ever happen? I'm through Seto. I want nothing more to do with you unless you change and Serenity can find it in her heart to forgive you, which I sincerely doubt."

By now tears were flowing freely down his cheeks Kaiba was shocked to see this. His little brother was hurt and to make matters worse, this time, he could do nothing about it since he was the source of it. Mokuba turned and ran out of the room, refusing to even look at his brother as he left.

"Mokuba, come back!" Kaiba, yelled, "Mokie, come back."

Kaiba was stunned. He hadn't called Mokuba Mokie since the day Gozaburo adopted him. Mokie was Mokuba's nickname that Kaiba had called him as a kid. It was a name that Mokuba adored. However, it was also a name that he had only allowed his brother to address him by, just like he was the only one that could address Kaiba by his first name and get away with it. Now Mokuba had friends at school and since Kaiba didn't call him by his surname anymore, he had allowed his friends to call him that.

"Mokie…" Kaiba cried, as tears now flowed freely down his cheeks.

"You brought that on yourself Seto," came the voice of Kaiba's conscience, "Now you can either attempt to sort this out or learn to live with the consequences of your actions and move on, though I doubt you can do either one."

* * *

Author's notes: Woe, Mokuba really hit the nail on the head didn't he? Kaiba's relationship with him is ruined and Kaiba's lost the only friend he ever had. Guess it's true that sometimes, you don't know what you have until it's gone and what goes around comes around. Now Kaiba's the one devastated. Next chapter he enters a dream in which he meets a few familiar faces, including a certain five thousand-year-old blue-eyed girl and his task is that he has to find himself and deal with all his problems. I don't know how many chapters this story will be. Kaiba's dream sequences, I estimate will be over two or three chapters. Anyway, I felt that in order for Kaiba's conscience to really get to him was to have Mokuba abandon him because let's face it, even Mokuba has to have his limits as to how much he could stand from his brother. He's only human and so is Kaiba, as much as he hates to admit it. Anyway, till next time. 


	5. Kaiba's soul

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 5: Kaiba's soul**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! They are the property Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics

It was raining in torrents in Domino City. The rain seemed to fit Kaiba's mood exactly. Ever since Mokuba had yelled at him and made it obvious that he hated him now, Kaiba was depressed. In fact, he was more than depressed, he was devastated, exactly what he had intended to do to Serenity Wheeler after she humiliated him. He sat in his limo on the way home from work. He was unusually quiet for once. Normally he was either planning to himself or working away on his laptop, but he was doing neither. Though he kept up his usual facial expression, his quietness was enough for the limo driver to realise that something was amiss. Not that he cared; it was just that his curiosity had gotten the better of him. However, he was smart enough to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Mokuba," Kaiba, thought, "Why?" He just couldn't understand why Mokuba would desert him. Sure, Kaiba admitted that not all the decisions he had made and not everything he did in the past were all good, but in Kaiba's mind, he did all those things for them, to keep them out of poverty. It was his initial idea to be adopted by Gozaburo. He was desperate to get out of the orphanage that he decided to just go with the next person that showed up at the orphanage, which just so happened to be Gozaburo Kaiba. Kaiba remembered that he was so desperate that he never considered what kind of person Gozaburo was. Before that day, he had looked up to Gozaburo as the World Chess Champion. When he came to the orphanage, Kaiba had thought that it would be a good idea for him to adopt both him and Mokuba. So, he challenged him to a chess game and having seen Gozaburo play so often on TV, he had been able to memorize all his strategies and develop counter-strategies. However, as he discover, Gozaburo's niceties were all just to gain publicity. The real Gozaburo was a cold-hearted, ruthless and cruel tyrant that did anything to make sure he stayed on top. Gozaburo even had certain people killed and Kaiba had seen that some, a small minority of Gozaburo's activities were illegal, but Gozaburo was able to use his great influence and money to pay off the authorities.

"Maybe it was a mistake to force Gozaburo into adopting us," he thought as the limo came to a halt at the entrance to the Kaiba mansion. It was something that he told himself since day one when he found out just what sort of person Gozaburo really was. Idles weren't the people their worshipers portrayed them as, it was a lesson that Kaiba learned the hard way. Many people had looked up to Gozaburo because of his status as the champion of chess, but Kaiba wondered just how many people knew the real Gozaburo. None of the people that looked up to him knew. Only his house staff and employees knew the real Gozaburo. It was sort of like his status as the number one duellist before Yugi beat him. Many people had looked up to him as duelling champion and when those unlucky enough to be his next opponent duelled him, they were given a rude awakening into reality. Some of them, as he remembered Mokuba saying had hung up their decks, afraid to duel again.

"Could Mokuba be right?" Kaiba continued in his thoughts. He got out of his limo and went into the house.

"Sir," came a familiar voice, "Master Mokuba called and said that he won't be coming home this evening. He said that he's staying at the hospital with Yugi Moto and his friends.

The voice belonged to Hobson and Kaiba cringed. He hated the fact that Mokuba considered the "geek" squad his friends. He felt that their talk of Egyptology and other so-called mumbo-jumbo were rubbing off on him. However, in his current state, Kaiba didn't feel like protesting, especially after what Mokuba said to him.

"Thank you Hobson," was all he said, "Just leave it be for now. I'm a bit tired to deal with it at the moment."

Hobson just stared in surprise. Normally Kaiba would've probably have gotten back in his limo and gone to the hospital to bring Mokuba back. However, he'd decided to let it be. Hobson knew how Kaiba felt about Yugi and his friends and he was surprised that Kaiba would allow Mokuba to hang with them, but judging from the look on Kaiba's face, Hobson wondered if perhaps Mokuba and Kaiba had a falling-out, which was unheard of.

"Guess there's a first time for everything," he thought. He knew better than to pry. He maybe Kaiba's butler and most trusted hitman, but that didn't mean he was safe from his wrath. After all, he had been Gozaburo's butler before Kaiba was even adopted and he did assist Gozaburo in shaping him into the person he was today and Hobson knew that Kaiba hated every minute of it. Just one wrong word and Kaiba could easily decide to get his revenge.

However, Kaiba went up to his room and lay on his bed. He took his locket and opened it up. It had the picture of a younger Mokuba in it and he was smiling. "Mokie," he said. He sighed and suddenly slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

The next thing Kaiba knew, he was in a black void of nothingness. Everywhere he looked, it was pitch black and yet, he found that he was able to see his hands when he put them in front of his face as clear as day.

"What the?" he said, "Where am I? Wasn't I just lying on my bed?"

He furiously looked around and saw nothing but darkness.

"Oh please," he said regaining his composure, "This must be a freaky dream."

"Is it?" came a familiar voice; a voice that Kaiba despised and hoped would never have to hear again.

He spun round and saw his stepfather, Gozaburo. However, there was someone standing next to him, a man that Kaiba never seen before, though he did get a sense of déjà vu when he studied him. The man had a slight resemblance to Pegasus, but it was only a slight one. He had white hair, a white moustache and beard, a semi-light, semi-dark blue eye and a brown tan to his skin. Kaiba gasped. The man looked as if he was from somewhere in or near the Middle East. Kaiba guessed Egypt since so many people kept pestering him about how he was a priest in Ancient Egypt. The man wore a brown robe with the hood over his head, but was shocked Kaiba the most was the fact that this man had a familiar item where his left eye should be.

"The Millennium Eye," Kaiba, said, "But how, I thought Pegasus…" He stopped in mid-sentence wondering who this man was and how he came into possession of the Millennium Eye.

"Hello Seto," the man said, "It's been five thousand years or so hasn't it?"

"Who are you?" Kaiba, said, "And why are you with that man?" He pointed to Gozaburo.

"I an Aknadin, father of your five thousand-year-old self."

"You've lost it old man," Kaiba said, forgetting about his current situation with Mokuba.

"Has he Seto?" Gozaburo, said, "I found some of the stuff he told me about you very interesting."

"Great," Kaiba, said, "Another Egyptian loony and this time, he's brainwashed my stepfather into believing that mumbo-jumbo. Not that I care about you, it's just that I'm sick and tired of hearing those Egyptian fairytales. Some Egyptian woman has already brainwashed Yugi Moto and his friends into believing that that a pharaoh lives inside his pendant and at times he is the pharaoh. What a load bull. Talk about schizophrenia."

"Oh really," Aknadin, said, "Haven't you noticed anything strange about this Yugi character?"

"Strange?" Kaiba, said, "Are you off your rocker? Anyone with common sense would know that with the "geek" squad, everything's strange."

"You're in denial Seto," Gozaburo, said, "You know, before I revealed myself in the virtual world, I had read Noah's mind after he tried to steal Yugi's body and I found some interesting images. Apparently, Noah had received images from Yugi's mind and most of them were of a stone tablet and himself dressed as a pharaoh. Aknadin here told me about himself and life in his time and who the pharaoh was."

Kaiba just raised an eyebrow. No way, this was all just one big lie, a set up to try and undermine him.

"Are you sure of that?" Aknadin, said, "You mean that you're so stupid that you fail to notice the height difference whenever this Yugi claims to be the pharaoh, that you don't notice the more serious look and deeper voice?"

"I certainly did," Gozaburo, said, "In fact; it was like there were two people sharing the same body. I would've passed it off as schizophrenia, but schizophrenia doesn't alter your height, nor does it deepen your voice."

"Just tricks and illusions," Kaiba said.

"How?" Aknadin, asked, "How can they be tricks and illusions?"

Kaiba opened his mouth to answer, but realised that he didn't have an answer. He just said it just so that it wouldn't bother him and he never thought about how his explanation worked. How did Yugi grow taller and then shrink again and how could his voice get deeper and his face get more serious? When he first met Yugi, he saw him as a shrimp that was an easy target for bullies and he was a target for bullies, so much so that Kaiba had dubbed him as a bully magnet and it was all due to his size. However, since he had gotten that pendant of his, things had gotten weird. Yugi was still bullied, but the bullies normally ended up in comas and when they woke up, they had gone through a personality change. Since it didn't concern him, Kaiba never gave it much thought. However, when he forced Solomon into a duel and then Yugi challenged him, he remembered that it was the first time he saw the "transformation", if you could call it that. He had noticed that the Millennium Puzzle, as Yugi called his pendant was glowing. He never gave it much thought. However, when Yugi defeated him, he felt that he lost more than just a match, he felt like he lost part of himself. Sure he was still the same duellist as before, but he still felt that something was missing. He remembered that before he duelled Yugi for the first time, he was willing to do anything to get what he wanted, even kill people, but now, he found the idea of killing someone appalling. At best, all he could do was devastate them emotionally, which is exactly what he done to Serenity. Kaiba wondered that if whatever part of him that he lost after his loss to Yugi was still with him today, would he have killed Serenity in retaliation for his humiliation? Though he kept a straight face, the idea that he could've possibly killed Serenity was frightening. He also remembered when he actually defeated Yugi. Yugi technically had the duel won, but Kaiba threatened to kill himself, though he just backed up to the edge and said that the shockwave from the attack would send him off, since he had backed up to the edge of the castle, it was technically a suicide scenario. Kaiba hated it. He hated that he had to cheat in order to win. If the public realised what he had done, it would've squashed his reputation, but his brother was at stake and though he knew that Yugi probably would've rescued Mokuba anyway, his pride prevented him from accepting his help. He wanted to be the one that beat Pegasus and save Mokuba. However, at first, Yugi seemed pretty willing to just kill him, but he apparently had a change of heart. Kaiba remembered that when Yugi ordered his Celtic Guardian to stop, his voice was no longer deep and he was shorter.

"No way," he thought, "That's nonsense, isn't it?"

"You're in denial Seto," Aknadin, said, "You're unsure of yourself, aren't you?"

"Shut up," Kaiba said.

"Gozaburo said, "What are you afraid of Seto? Do you fear the past? Is that why you want to forget it?"

"Maybe the reason you want to bury the past is because that deep down, you know that you are friends with Yugi and you want to bury it because it makes you weak," Aknadin said.

"There's no harm in admitting it," Gozaburo, said, "I taught you that friendship is a sign of weakness."

"Shut up!" Kaiba, shouted, "I don't want to hear it. Yugi and I aren't friends, we were never friends, nor will we ever be friends. Just let the shrimp live in his delusional world. The day we become friends is the day I forgive you for the torture you put me through."

Gozaburo chuckled.

"And I'm proud of my achievement," he said, "Sure, you may have ousted me from power and forced me to kill myself after I downloaded my mind into Noah's virtual world, but like Mokuba said, I was successful in shaping you into what I wanted you to be. You're just a younger version of me. You have the same devious, conniving mind that made me so powerful and as I found out, you actually surpassed me when you ousted me from power over Kaiba Corp. I have to say that although I was angry and devastated, part of me was proud of you. You used the same tactics I used and that I should've seen coming, but you outdid me and although I hate you for ousting me, I'm proud in the sense that you have become so ruthless, just as I wanted you to be."

Kaiba was shocked. He hated it when people compared him to his stepfather, but now the person that was comparing him was his stepfather himself.

"I'm nothing like you," Kaiba protested.

"Oh really?" Aknadin, said, "You use the same tactics he taught you. You may be better at it than him, but it's still the same tactics and it's the same ruthless attitude. I have to say that I was surprised at this. Five thousand years ago, I offered you the position of pharaoh because I was the previous pharaoh's brother, thus the pharaoh's uncle and I felt that I should've had the throne. However, I was getting old and my reign would've been short, so I decided that you, my son should be pharaoh and you turned the offer down and yet, five thousand years later, you overthrow the leader of a modern-day organisation that isn't as important as royalty."

Gozaburo said, "I have to say that I too was surprised. You turned down an offer to lead a whole kingdom and yet you ousted me, a leader of a single organisation that has no ruling power whatsoever over the world."

"Thanks for the history lesson," Kaiba, said, "But you've just proven that your full of it. That tablet said that Yugi and I were supposed to have been fighting over the throne."

"After you refused, I decided that if you wouldn't follow me willingly, then I'd force you into becoming pharaoh," Aknadin, said, "You see, you destroyed my physical being, but my soul persevered so I invaded your mind and took control of you and fought the Pharaoh, but that Blue Eyes White Dragon betrayed me. I would've won if it were not for that."

Kaiba said, "Nice try, but I'm not convinced."

"But you are aware that something's not right with Yugi Moto and that you have become like your modern-day stepfather," Aknadin, said, "Deny it all you want Seto. I know that deep down, you know the truth. The more you deny, the harder it'll be. No wonder you lost your modern-day brother."

"How'd you know about that?" Kaiba growled angrily.

"We are spirits," Gozaburo, said, "And we watch over the living, though we reside in the Shadow Realm, we still see into the world of the living."

"Enough," Kaiba, said, "Get out of my sight both of you."

Aknadin and Gozaburo looked at each other and nodded to each other.

"As you wish," Gozaburo, said, "Our mission here is accomplished anyway. You now realise that perhaps everything you try to pass as nothing more than tricks and illusions is actually real. Like Aknadin said, deny it all you want. You'll just make things harder on yourself."

Aknadin looked at Gozaburo and said, "Come Gozaburo, I'll tell you about how to extract a ka from within a person."

"I'd love to hear it," Gozaburo said, as both of them faded from Kaiba's sight.

Kaiba said, "Thanks goodness. The last thing I need is superstitious nitwits."

Suddenly, a light appeared in front of him and he had to cover his eyes to shield them from the brightness. He saw two more figures and at first he thought that Gozaburo and Aknadin had returned to pester him some more, but he suddenly noticed that one of them was too small to be an adult and the other had the silhouette of a woman. When the light faded, he saw that the small figure was none other than Noah.

"Oh great," Kaiba, said, "More bad news."

However, the woman, he did not recognise, though like with Aknadin, he had a sense of déjà vu studying her. She had long light blue hair and blue eyes that looked somewhat familiar to him. She were a brown robe that looked as if it was the normal attire for a primitive peasant in ancient civilisations.

"Greetings Seto," Noah, said, "Miss me?"

"What is this?" Kaiba, said, "Is it "Let's annoy Kaiba as punishment for making the Wheelerette's life a living hell" time?"

The woman glared at him and said, "That is nothing to joke about Seto. You really hurt that girl bad and you are here as a consequence of it, as is losing your brother's support."

"Just who are you?" Kaiba, said, "And you will address me as Kaiba. Only Mokuba may address my by my first name."

"Why?" the woman said, "It's not your original surname, so why address you by a surname that you stole?"

Kaiba growled.

"Easy Seto," Noah, said, "We're here to help you get Mokuba back whether you want it or not and when you're done here, your life will hopefully be a whole lot happier."

Kaiba said, "Okay, that's all fine and dandy if you think I'll accept help from you Noah, but who is this woman, your adoptive mom?"

That earned Kaiba a slap in the face from the woman.

"No, I am not Noah's stepmother," the woman said, "My name is Kisara and I am the Blue Eyes White Dragon."

* * *

Author's notes: Wow, imagine that for a cliffhanger. Kaiba's met with his five thousand-year-old love. Just what will Kisara and Noah do with him and what else awaits Kaiba in this dream world? I felt that Kaiba meeting his stepfather and his five thousand-year-old father would be a real shocker for him. However, as usual, Kaiba denies that he believes in all the magic stuff. I know that it may seem like I'm going off track here, but this is essential to the story. Kaiba is on a journey to discover himself so he can apologise to Serenity and her family and really mean it, are all, Kisara did say that he was there as a consequence of devastating Serenity emotionally. I've decided that the dream sequence will go on till chapter seven. Anyway, till next time. 


	6. Realizing consequences

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 6: Realizing consequences**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh. They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

Kaiba looked at Kisara as if she was crazy. He could've sworn that she said that she was the Blue Eyes White Dragon. He had been humiliated by Serenity Wheeler, he got his revenge, but his conscience had caught up with him and then Mokuba had deserted him. Now he was in some dream world where he had met his stepfather again along with an old Egyptian who claimed to be his father from five thousand years ago. Now he was faced with his stepbrother and a woman who just claimed to be the Blue Eyes White Dragon.

"You're full of it," Kaiba, said, "The Blue Eyes White Dragon indeed."

"It's true," Kisara, said, "The Blue Eyes White Dragon was my ka."

Kaiba said, "I don't believe in that crap. I'm sick and tired of those Egyptian fairytales. I know who I am. I am Seto Kaiba, the President and CEO of Kaiba Corp. Just leave me alone with those ridiculous stories."

Kisara sighed.

"You're a really stubborn one," she said, "You refuse to believe in the supernatural even though irrefutable proof has been shoved in your face. Or maybe you do know that it's all true, it's just that's you're afraid of what'll happen if you acknowledge it."

"That's right Seto," Noah, said, "You're afraid of change. You like things just the way they are and you're afraid of the consequences if they were to change."

Kaiba growled.

Kisara said, "Anyway, whether you believe it or not doesn't matter at the moment. What does matter is what you did to that girl."

"Is this just to make me feel sympathetic towards the Wheelerette?" Kaiba, said, "Your wasting your time. She got exactly what she deserved."

"Did she?" Kisara, said, "I do believe your conscience is catching up with you."

Kaiba growled. Though he hated to admit it, Kisara was right. Ever since he saw Serenity's devastated state, his conscience had begun to catch up with him. At first he was able to shake it off, but as time progressed, it became harder and harder to shake off. It kept coming back to pester him.

"Why?" he thought, "I've never felt like this about anyone else in my life, why's the Wheelerette different?"

"Maybe it's because she's younger than all of your other victims," Kisara said, much to Kaiba's shock.

"Did I say that out loud?" he thought.

"No Seto," Noah, said, "We spirits can read minds, much like Pegasus when he had the Millennium Eye."

Kaiba closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I'm ready to wake up from this crazy nightmare," he said.

Kisara said, "Go ahead and deny it, it'll just make the consequences more severe. The bottom line is, you went too far in your vengeance and all over bruised pride. Five thousand years ago, you may have been prideful, but at least you had a heart. That Gozaburo character really changed you all right."

Kaiba said, "Look, just go away, I'm not in the mood for this. Maybe I like the way I am, ever think of that. Maybe I want to be bitter and despised in the world." Of course, he didn't mean it. He just wanted Kisara and Noah to leave him alone. However, it was all in vain.

"You don't fool us Seto," Noah, said, "I've learned a lot about you from Kisara here. I remember when I reminded Yugi of the fact that you didn't like him when he was fighting to save you and Mokuba and you know what his answer was? He said that you and he were locked in a five thousand-year-old rivalry. At first, I was like you, refusing to believe in such nonsense, but after I sacrificed myself to stop my father, my spirit watched over the Battle City Finals and I found irrefutable prove that proved that Yugi was right. You can't deny those visions you saw of Ancient Egypt."

Kaiba said, "Just hallucinations brought on by Ishizu's lies."

"You came up with inexplicable explanations to explain how the impossible is possible just so you don't have to think about it," Kisara, said, "How can a person's words bring on hallucinations and how can a shorter-than-average boy become taller with a deeper voice?"

Kaiba realised that he'd hit a dead end. How indeed? Gozaburo and Aknadin had lured him into the same trap.

"Anyway," Kisara, said, "Let's not get too off track. It's time to show you the consequences of your actions. If words alone won't convince you, then these images or "hallucinations" as you call them hopefully will."

* * *

Suddenly the whole area lit up and Kaiba had to shield his eyes. When he opened them, he still saw Noah and Kisara, but he noticed that he was also in the Domino City Hospital. All three of them were floating in midair at the top of the main lobby where Yugi, Tea, Mokuba and Tristen sat. Tristen was comforting or trying to comfort a tear-filled Serenity, who looked worse off than before. Kaiba's conscience started to go into overdrive that was the only way Kaiba could explain it, for now he couldn't shake off his guilt.

"Still say that you have no conscience?" Noah said.

"Shut up," Kaiba, said, "I don't want to hear it."

Down below, Mokuba said, "I can't believe Seto would do this. I'm really sorry Serenity."

"It's not your fault Mokuba…" Serenity managed to say between cries.

Tea said, "Kaiba ought to be ashamed of himself. This remains me of that time he left your grandfather to die Yugi, you know after he defeated him before your first match."

Yugi nodded. Though he had said that he wouldn't believe that it was Kaiba without proof, Mokuba's arrival and confession had erased all doubt from his mind. He thought that Kaiba would've at least learned to move on with his life, but apparently he had been mistaken.

Yami appeared next to him and said, "I know, it's a shock, but apparently Kaiba's too far gone. If there was ever a good person inside Kaiba to begin with, then that person is gone now and now even Mokuba realises it."

Kaiba was shocked, not only could he see Yami, but he heard every word as well.

"This can't be," he said, "This is a trick."

"It's no trick," Kisara, said, "That is the spirit of the pharaoh. He's the one you've been duelling against, not Yugi Moto."

Kaiba said, "Lies, all lies."

"Really Seto?" Noah, said, "The proof is in front of you. Don't you remember times when you just happened to see Yugi and he appeared to be talking to thin air?"

"Yeah," Kaiba, said, "I just thought that he was just not right in the head." He remembered times when he saw Yugi while he was just passing by. Yugi had been talking to what looked like thin air. At the time, Kaiba just shrugged it off, saying that Yugi obviously had problems. However, now he could see the source of Yugi's so-called imaginary friend, an older version of himself with a deeper voice and extra blonde streaks of hair.

Yami looked up and then glared directly at Kaiba.

Kaiba had to admit that he did feel a little intimidated. In the past whenever Yugi was like this and glared at him, Kaiba had felt as if he was glaring deep into his soul, though he wouldn't admit it. Something about Yami's glares made him feel uneasy.

"It's all your fault," Yami's voice came in Kaiba's head, "You better hope that you can fix this otherwise you'll be sorry."

Kaiba cowered in fear. Kaiba didn't know who this was, but he was smart enough to know that he did have control of Yugi's body at times and he had never used such a threatening tone while speaking to him before. Something about his voice told Kaiba that Yami meant business and unless he sorted everything out, something terrible was going to happen to him.

"Let's go," Kisara, said, "There's one more place here where we need to visit."

Kaiba felt his body involuntarily moving. Noah and Kisara were at either side of him.

"Where are we going?" Kaiba demanded.

"To Mrs Wheeler's room," Kisara, said, "Both she and her son were victims of your wrath as well. I guess the term, collateral damage is the most appropriate here."

Kaiba just grunted. Noah sighed.

"You can be irritating at times," he said, "How Mokuba was able to stay with you for so long before realising your true self is beyond me."

Kaiba said, "Shut up."

* * *

It didn't take long to reach the room Mrs Wheeler was in. She was awake and sitting up in bed. Sitting on a chair at the side of the bed was a battered and bruised Joey. One of his eyes was almost swollen shut and he had bandages applied to various parts of his body.

"If he had more bandages, he'd be a mummy," Kaiba joked, much to the displeasure of both Kisara and Noah.

"This is nothing to joke about Seto," Kisara, said, "This is a result of your campaign to devastate Serenity."

"Whatever," Kaiba said.

Down below, Mrs Wheeler looked at Joey.

"Got yourself into another fight, eh Joseph?" she said.

"Look ma," Joey, said, "I got jumped and beaten by the same mob dat beat you up." It was obvious that he was trying to restrain himself from verbally lashing out at his mother. Kaiba had known that Joey didn't get on with his mother all that well.

"Really," Mrs Wheeler, said, "And I suppose you know who's responsible for this."

Joey clenched his fists. He couldn't lash out at his mother, at least not at the moment. Serenity was as devastated as it was and Joey knew that a fight, even a verbal one between him and his mother would only devastate her further. However, it was very difficult to restrain himself. It took everything he had just to do that.

Eventually, he sighed and said, "Look ma, I know we don't get on dat well, but I'd like to call a truce, at least for now; not for ourselves, nor for each other, but for Serenity. She's been devastated enough and all our fighting will do is make the situation worse."

Mrs Wheeler surprising replied with a heart-warming smile.

"At last we can agree on something Joseph," she said, "Okay."

"Thanks ma," Joey said.

"You're more considerate than I thought," Mrs Wheeler, said, "Guess I was wrong to some extent about you. Anyway, I guess it's time I let you in on a little secret about Serenity."

Joey said, "A secret, what sort of a secret?"

Mrs Wheeler said, "Ever since I took her away, she's been really quiet and shy and because of this, she didn't make any friends. Her emotional state was already unstable. According to a psychiatrist, Serenity had a personality disorder that meant that she got upset really easily and could be totally devastated if something big were to upset her. I would've sent her to live with you once I found out, but you were living with your father at the time and I didn't trust you being with me. I felt that you were too much like your father and would be a bad influence on Serenity."

Joey remained quiet. He knew that to say something would probably go back on his word. The truth was, he was angry at his mother even more now. She knew that something was wrong with Serenity and from what she said, she did absolutely nothing, not that there was much she could do apart from trying to be with Serenity 24/7 and that was an impossibility. Serenity was a strong person and whenever she was in emotional pain, she was able to hide it quite well. Joey remembered when he received the videotape of Serenity telling him that she was going blind. Though she looked happy, Joey could tell that inside, she was falling apart. He could see it in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Joseph," Mrs Wheeler, continued, "I know that saying sorry doesn't cut it, but you already knew why I didn't want Serenity being with you in the first place, right?"

Joey nodded. He had to admit that his mother did make a point. Joey had been living with his father, who was a drunk and was very abusive. As much as Joey hated his mother, he had to admit that he'd have much rather have had Serenity living with her rather than with him and a violent drunk like their father. Joey remembered how his father was and was glad that Serenity wasn't there to endure it because if what his mother said was true, Serenity probably would've lost the will to live and died years ago. Unlike Mrs Wheeler, Mr Wheeler didn't really care who got custody rights over who. He probably would've left Joey for dead if he could've gotten away with it.

Though he hadn't forgiven his mother for what she did, he smiled in the sense that at least, now that he thought about the whole situation he had reached an understanding with her.

Kaiba growled.

He heard the whole thing and somehow, he was able to know what each of them was thinking.

However, he was growling because he was angry with himself, though he wouldn't admit it. He was angry with himself for not taking Serenity's personality disorder into consideration. He never really thought about those he stepped on. If someone humiliated him, he retaliated and that was usually the end of it. However, in the past, all of Kaiba's victims were male and Serenity was a girl, not to mention in her early to mid-teens. She was younger than Kaiba's other humiliation victims.

"You do care," Noah said.

"No I don't," Kaiba, lied, "I'm just angry at the fact Mokuba's gone." It didn't work though.

Kisara and Noah took him back into the lobby and this time they were on the ground and Kaiba was thankful that Yami was no longer around, or so he thought. Kaiba looked at Serenity, who was still crying and she looked considerably worse.

"What have I done?" he thought, "But isn't this what I wanted?"

"Sometimes what you want isn't as great and as satisfying as you think once you've got it," Kisara, said, "People that want everything that get their wish suddenly realise that without people to share it with, it's all worthless."

Kaiba said, "I fail to see how that relates to my current situation."

"It's simple Seto," Noah, said, "Now that you've seen the consequences of your actions, you realise that you've made a mistake. Come on Seto, stop denying it."

Kaiba sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry," he said, "I'm sorry. I never imagined it would be like this. I wish I could fix it and make it up to Serenity somehow."

"You called her Serenity," Noah, said, "What happened to Wheelerette?"

Kaiba said, "Serenity is her name isn't it? Maybe I forgot to refer to her the way I usually do."

"I think it's something else," Kisara said.

Kaiba said, "What do you mean Kisara?"

"I think you love her," Kisara said.

"Oh please," Kaiba, said, "She's a Wheeler… Oh who am I kidding, yes, it's love."

He looked at Serenity again. Seeing her devastated was devastating him, as was seeing Mokuba depressed. It was the consequences of his actions. He devastated Serenity and lost Mokuba as a result and it was doing the same to him what he did to Serenity.

"I guess now you'll show some respect for the saying, "What goes around comes around"," Noah, said, "You beat an awful lot of people at Duel Monsters and eventually, you suffered defeat. However, you were too caught up in your rage to accept that you got what you deserved."

Kaiba growled. He didn't know why he was in love with Serenity, he just was. Seeing her devastated made him realise that he loved her and now that he knew about it, he was devastated even more since in his view that if there ever was a chance for them to be together, then he blew it.

"Not necessarily," Kisara, said, "You could still apologise. She might not accept it, but at least she'll know you're sorry."

Kaiba sighed and said, "Thanks Kisara, Noah. I think I understand now."

* * *

The room faded and the three of them were back in the darkness.

Kaiba said, "So do I get to leave here now?"

Kisara said, "There is one last thing you need to do in order to put your past behind you for good."

Kaiba sulked. What was it now?

"You must win a duel," Noah, said, "If you lose, you'll remain here and your opponent will leave with your body."

Kaiba said, "What?"

Kisara said, "Yes. Your opponent is standing right there." She pointed behind him and Kaiba spun round and gasped.

Behind him stood someone that looked a lot like him. In fact, it was his mirror image, apart from the facts that the skin had a dark tinge to it and the were markings below the eyes. The mirror image of Kaiba wore his school uniform. He looked exactly like Kaiba during his first duel with Yugi, only he had a duel disk on. He had a sinister smile on his face as well.

"Hello," the Kaiba look-alike, said, "It's me, Kaiba and this time you don't stand a ghost of a chance."

"What is this?" Kaiba, demanded, "I'm Kaiba you impostor."

"You're both one and the same," Kisara, said, "That's the part of you that the Pharaoh banished to the Shadow Realm and who he was forced to duel against at Duellist Kingdom. You remember when Pegasus's men stole your deck and you discovered that Yugi was duelling against someone posing as you, don't you?"

"Yeah," Kaiba, said, "So that's the impostor?"

"I'm not an impostor," Evil-Kaiba, said, "I'm you. I'm the part of you that you lost after your first duel with Yugi, my departure is the reason why you've softened somewhat, though not much thankfully."

"You lie," Kaiba, said, "If it's a duel you want, then it's a duel you'll get."

* * *

Author's notes: How's that for a strange twist? It's Kaiba versus Kaiba in the next chapter and Kaiba's fighting more than just a duel. If he loses this duel, then his dark side is free once again. I felt that if Kaiba was to change, then he'd have to confront his darker side, the part of him that Yugi banished to the Shadow Realm and who Pegasus freed in order to duel Yugi again. However, what surprises does Evil-Kaiba have in store for his counterpart? Can Kaiba defeat an opponent that can anticipate his every move and who probably knows Kaiba better than he knows himself? I thought that adding a duel in this fic would spice things up a bit Sorry is Kisara's role was not to everyone's liking, but in order to make up for it, I'll have her meet with Kaiba again. I really wanted to do more with her this chapter, but I felt that the chapter would be too long. Anyway till next time. 


	7. Kaiba VS Kaiba

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 7: Kaiba VS Kaiba**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh. They are owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

Kaiba stared down his evil side, who just smiled back. Kaiba didn't believe, or at least didn't want to believe that the person standing before him was the side of him that Yugi got rid of, but he did accept that this person had been the impostor at Duellist Kingdom and that in order to leave this place wherever it was, he had to defeat him in a duel.

"Poor deluded fool," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Even when faced with the truth, you refuse to believe it. I am your darker side. I am part of you."

"Get a life," Kaiba, said, "You'll pay for that stunt you pulled at Duellist Kingdom."

Kisara said, "Seto, in order to leave you must defeat him and return him to the Shadow Realm. You see when Yugi banished him to the Shadow Realm, his influence over you didn't cease. You're still the power-hungry and heartless person you were before, though I'll admit that after your first defeat, it toned down a bit. The reason is because it was Yugi and not you that defeated him. To be rid of him for good it's you that'll have to defeat him."

"Yeah right," Kaiba, said, "I told you that I don't believe in those fairytales."

"But you and I do agree that you have to defeat him whether you believe it or not."

Kaiba smiled and said, "Yeah. One way or another, this impostor is going down."

A duel disk appeared on his left arm along with his deck.

Evil-Kaiba said, "I hope you're ready for this my weaker-half. I know all about you. In fact, I know more about you than you know about yourself."

"Let's just get this over with," Kaiba, said, "The sooner I defeat you, the sooner I can leave this place

Both Kaibas activated their duel disks.

"LET'S DUEL!" they both yelled in unison.

(Kaiba's LP: 4000, Evil-Kaiba's LP: 4000)

"I'll start," Evil-Kaiba, said, "I summon a monster facedown in defence mode and end my turn. Now it's your move."

A facedown defence mode monster card appeared on the field.

"Pathetic," Kaiba, said, "You claim to be me, yet you make such a foolish opening move. Even Wheeler had a better opening move against me than you."

Evil-Kaiba growled, proving that he was part of Kaiba since Kaiba hated anyone suggesting that Joey could do something better than him.

"I summon Vorse Raider (1900/800) in attack mode and place two cards facedown on the field," Kaiba said.

Vorse raider appeared on the field along with two facedown mystery cards.

"Vorse Raider, attack this impostor's facedown monster now," Kaiba ordered.

Vorse Raider lunged at the facedown monster and slashed at it.

"My facedown monster was Vorse Raider as well," Evil-Kaiba said.

Another Vorse Raider appeared where the facedown card was before shattering and disappearing.

Kaiba growled.

"Nice try," he said, "But are you trying to tell me that you've imitated my deck? Vorse Raider's quite a common card. I can probably guess that sixty other duellists have a Vorse Raider in their decks."

"I am a reflection of you," Evil-Kaiba, replied, "And so is my deck. It is the same as yours with a few improvements."

"Just make your move," Kaiba said.

Evil-Kaiba said, "Fine. I use the magic of Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your crush card, which you have facedown on the field and I summon Battle Ox (1700/1000) so I can sacrifice it in order to summon Swordstalker (2000/1600) in attack mode."

Evil-Kaiba activated the Mystical Space Typhoon card, which destroyed the facedown card of the left on Kaiba's side of the field and Battle Ox appeared just to be sacrificed and Swordstalker appeared in its place.

"Oh, and you know that Swordstalker gains four hundred attack points for every monster in my graveyard," Evil-Kaiba said.

(Swordstalker: 2400/1600)

"Now attack his Vorse Raider now," Evil-Kaiba said.

Swordstalker lunged at Vorse Raider.

"Not so fast," Kaiba, said, "I activate my facedown magic card, Shrink. It cuts the attack points of any monster I choose in half and I choose your Swordstalker.

He activated his Shrink card and Swordstalker shrunk till it was half the size of a person's pinkie finger.

(Swordstalker: 1200/1600)

"Vorse Raider," Kaiba, said, "Counterattack."

Vorse Raider lunged at Swordstalker and destroyed it.

(Evil-Kaiba's LP: 3300)

"I m not have been planning to do that," Kaiba, said, "But it helps to have a backup plan." The truth was, Kaiba was shocked. All the cards his evil counterpart had played, he had in his hand.

"Yes," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Our hands are identical "

"Impossible," Kaiba, thought, "There's no way this overrated wannabe has the same cards I have, it's just impossible."

"I believe that it's your move," Evil-Kaiba said.

Kaiba smirked. He drew a card from his deck and smiled.

"I'll save this for later," he thought.

"I summon Battle Ox in attack mode and then I place this card facedown."

Battle Ox appeared along with a facedown card on Kaiba's side of the field.

"Attack his life points directly," Kaiba said.

Battle Ox lunged at Evil-Kaiba and slashed him with his axe, but Evil-Kaiba was unharmed.

(Evil-Kaiba's LP: 1600)

"I'll end my turn now," Kaiba said boastingly. He could've had Vorse Raider finish him off, but he enjoyed seeing this impostor, as he saw him as squirm. He wanted him to suffer and decided to prolong the duel.

"Big mistake," Evil-Kaiba, said, "You're so predictable. No wonder you're such a loser."

"Say what?" Kaiba said annoyed.

"Come on," Evil-Kaiba, said, "You knew that you could've used Vorse Raider to finish me off, but you decided to prolong my so-called suffering. I knew you'd do that, after all, I'm part of you and you fell right into my trap."

Kaiba growled.

Evil-Kaiba drew from his deck and smiled.

"First I summon Lord of Dragons (1200/1100)," he said.

The Lord of Dragons appeared on his side of the field.

"Next I equip him with the Flute of summoning Dragon so I can summon two dragons from my deck directly to the field and I knew exactly what two dragons I want."

When he played the Flute of summoning Dragon, the Lord of Dragons grabbed the flute and blew on it and Evil-Kaiba shuffled his deck and took out two cards from his deck.

"Behold, my Blue Eyes White Dragons (3000/2500)," Evil-Kaiba said as two Blue Eyes White Dragons appeared on the field.

"Impossible," Kaiba, said, "I have the only three Blue Eyes White Dragons in existence."

Kisara cringed and Noah just looked at Evil-Kaiba in disgust.

"Wrong," Evil-Kaiba, said, "There were once four, but you, or should I say I tore the last one all because that old coot used it against me and I couldn't stand the thought of that card ever being used against me."

"You destroyed part of me that day," Kisara, said, "My ka is the Blue Eyes White Dragon and the modern-day cards represent a part of me and when you tore that card, you destroyed part of my soul."

"Get used to it," Evil-Kaiba, said, "The fourth was inadequate. Anyway, on with the duel."

Kaiba growled. Though he refused to believe any of the mystical mumbo-jumbo, he could tell that Kisara was hurt over what happened and this impostor was making fun of her. Normally he wouldn't have cared, but something about Kisara made him want to stick up for her.

"Enough already," he said, "Just get on with it."

"With pleasure," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Blue White Dragon, destroy his Vorse Raider with your White Lightning attack."

The Blue Eyes White Dragon on the right fired a ball of what looked like white energy with white lightning surrounding it. The ball slammed into Vorse Raider and Vorse Raider was destroyed.

(Kaiba's LP: 2900)

"Now Blue Eyes number two, do the same with his Battle Ox."

The other Blue Eyes followed suit and Battle Ox was destroyed.

(Kaiba's LP: 1600)

"I then switch my Lord of Dragons into defence mode. Our life points are even now," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Once I beat you, I'll be free once again. I'll have your body and I'll get revenge on Yugi for robbing me of my status, I'll finish what you started with the Wheelerette and I'll get revenge on Mokuba for deserting us."

Kaiba growled.

"You leave them all alone," he said, "Your fight is with me and me alone. You'll pay for that stunt you pulled at Duellist Kingdom and using my deck."

Evil-Kaiba said, "Just make your move."

Kaiba said, "Gladly. I'll just mimic your last turn since you seem to have somehow duplicated my deck and have the same cards in my hand as I do.

Kaiba mimicked his evil counterpart's last turn and in the end up, he had the Lord of Dragons and two Blue Eyes White Dragons on the field in addition to the facedown card already there.

"We're at a stalemate," Evil-Kaiba, said, "We both have the same monsters opposing each other and due to Lord of Dragons' special ability, our dragons are invincible."

"The irresistible force meets the immovable object," Kaiba, said, "It seems that something has to be done."

Evil-Kaiba said, "Yes, so I play Tribute to the Doomed and all I have to do is discard one card from my hand to activate it."

He discarded a card from his hand into the graveyard slot and Kaiba's Lord of Dragons was suddenly wrapped in bandages and a giant mummy's hand came out of the ground and pulled the bandaged monster down and it vanished.

"I then return my Lord of Dragons back to my hand," Evil-Kaiba, finished, "That ends my turn."

Evil-Kaiba's Lord of Dragons returned to its card and Evil-Kaiba picked it up.

Kaiba said, "I activate my facedown card, Dragon Treasure. This magic card increases the attack points of any dragon type monster by three hundred and I use it on my Blue Eyes on the left."

(Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon: 3300/2500)

"Now attack the opposing Blue Eyes now," he ordered.

The Blue Eyes attacked the opposing dragon facing it. Normally they would've destroyed each other, due to their attack points being equal, but Kaiba's Blue Eyes had three hundred extra points due to Dragon Treasure and therefore, it destroyed the other dragon.

(Evil-Kaiba's LP: 1300)

"That ends my turn," Kaiba said.

Evil Kaiba smirked and said, "So predictable. Anyway, like I said before, my deck is the same as yours, only with a few improvements. You saw one of them with my Tribute to the Doomed magic card and now it's about time you saw another one."

Kaiba said, "So you have a few cards I don't, I'll still beat you."

"It's that attitude that led to our fall from grace," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Which is why I return, I'm planning on doing away with both Yugi and Wheeler permanently. I cannot allow duellists with the potential to beat me be allowed to live."

Kaiba was shocked. Was this freak serious? Was he truly planning on murder? Kaiba remembered a time when he would've done away someone and not lose any sleep over it, but since he lost to Yugi, he didn't fancy the idea of killing someone. Even he saw that that was going too far. He already felt sorry about driving the owner of the second Blue Eyes card to commit suicide and hiring the mafia to assassinate the third. However, up until now, he'd never admit it openly. His excuse was that it was better for those he stepped on to live with humiliation and devastation he inflicted on them. Basically to make a long explanation short, compared to the methods of payback he used, murder was being generous.

"You're insane," he said.

"Am I?" Evil-Kaiba, said, "You felt like this at one point. In fact, you wanted you kill Gozaburo yourself. If it wasn't for the fact that Mokuba was present when Gozaburo was ousted from power, you would've done it yourself and perhaps have prevented him from downloading his mind into Noah virtual world and that whole virtual episode of the Battle City tournament could've been avoided."

Kaiba said, "Just make your move."

"Very well," Evil-Kaiba, said, "I equip my surviving Blue Eyes with Dragon Nails, which raises its attack points by six hundred, double the number of Dragon Treasure."

A pair of what looked like metal gloves with spikes on then appeared and they slipped into the Blue Eyes' hands.

(Evil-Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon: 3600/2500)

"Now my Blue Eyes White Dragon," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Destroy the dragon that destroyed your fallen comrade."

The Blue Eyes fired its White Lightning attack at the Blue Eyes that destroyed Evil-Kaiba's first dragon and it was destroyed due to the fact that Evil-Kaiba's dragon was equipped with a magic card that gave it more attack points than the magic card that was equipped to Kaiba's dragon.

(Kaiba's LP: 1300)

"Our life points are even once again," Evil-Kaiba boasted.

Kaiba said, "Not for long."

Evil-Kaiba said, "Make your move then."

Kaiba looked at his hand and said, "I activate the magic of Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Dragon Nails card, reducing your Blue Eyes' attack points back to their original value."

He played the card and a tornado appeared and went over to Evil-Kaiba's Blue Eyes and destroyed the Dragon Nails that it was wearing.

(Evil-Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon: 3000/2500)

"I end my turn," Kaiba said. "I have no options," he thought, "How is this possible? How could he know about my strategies and my past?" he added in his thoughts.

"I am you, dimwit," Evil-Kaiba, said, "It was Gozaburo's beatings and gruelling lessons on business that spawned me and unlike you, I know everything about you."

Kaiba growled.

"When I send you to the Shadow Realm," Evil-Kaiba, continued, "Tell Gozaburo that I said thank you for creating me."

Kaiba said, "Just go and make your move."

Evil-Kaiba, said, "With pleasure. I play Graceful Charity, which allows me to draw three cards so long as I discard two."

He drew three cards and then discarded two of them.

"I then sent my last Blue Eyes White Dragon to the graveyard," Evil, Kaiba, finished, "So I can summon this, the Black Eyes Dark Dragon (3000/2500)."

Kaiba studied the new monster that appeared on the field. It was totally black and was in the shape of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. The only part of it not black was its eye balls. The irises and pupils were so black that they overlapped with each other

"What is that thing?" Kaiba said.

"This?" Evil-Kaiba, said, "This is the dark side of the Blue Eyes White Dragon. It can only be summoned to field when all Blue Eyes White Dragons in its wielder's deck are sent to the graveyard and it gets an extra five hundred attack points for each Blue Eyes either on the field or in the graveyard. So that's three in my graveyard, one in yours and you have another on the field, so that's an extra twenty-five hundred attack points right off the bat."

(Black Eyes Dark Dragon: 5500/2500)

"Hold on," Kaiba, said, "You only played two Blue Eyes White Dragons. So it should only have five thousand attack points."

"True," Evil-Kaiba, said, "But I sent my third one to the graveyard when I played Graceful Charity. However, luckily for you, my new dragon can't attack this turn and if you play your last Blue Eyes White Dragon, you'll only make Black Eyes Dark Dragon stronger."

Kaiba growled.

"This was my plan all along," Evil-Kaiba, said, "You're no match for my creature of darkness. It hurts to be on the receiving end of your own logic, doesn't it?"

"Hold on," Kaiba, thought, "This is how I duel."

Evil-Kaiba said, "How does it feel to face someone who is your double personality wise, not to mention your negative side?"

"Great," Kaiba, said, "Now I'm at the receiving end of my own duelling methods."

Kaiba suddenly realised that perhaps the reason why he was so angry with Yugi for beating him was because he had been so used to winning all the time. Since he started playing Duel Monsters right up until he lost to Yugi, had had won every match he'd been in, devastating his opponents, scaring them into early retirement and in very few cases, sending them off to hospital. He'd never experienced what it was like to lose and therefore didn't know how to handle it. He remembered watching one of Mokuba's favourite shows with Mokuba. In it, a martial arts teacher had said that it was best to teach his students humility when they were still new at it, therefore, if they ever lost in future, they'd know how to handle it. Of course at the time, he thought nothing of it, but now he realised that the same logic could be applied to any sport or game. He remembered when he defeated Joey at Battle City. Joey may have been humiliated, but not to the point that Kaiba had wanted. Unlike Kaiba, Joey knew what it was like to lose and though Kaiba would never admit it, if it had not been for his final trap card, Joey would've won and who knows what that would've done to him. To be beaten by one person was enough, but two, especially when you had defeated the second person once before would've probably have been unbearable and probably would've driven Kaiba insane and knowing Joey, he probably would've rubbed it in, which would've only have contributed to his insanity. Kaiba was sure that if he were to duel Joey again then he'd have an even more difficult time at beating him than in Battle City.

"Forgive me for interrupting your vacation to La-La Land," Evil, Kaiba, said, "But it's your move."

Kaiba said, "Alright, I activated the magic card, Raigeki, which destroys all monsters on your side of the field." He activated the card and a beam of energy struck the Black Eyes Dark Dragon, but when the smoke cleared, it was still there. Evil-Kaiba had discarded a card from his hand to the graveyard.

"Nice try," Evil-Kaiba, said, "But another of Black Eyes Dark Dragon's special abilities makes it indestructible so long as I discard a card from my hand to the graveyard. Basically, it can't be destroyed."

Kaiba growled.

"I place one card facedown and switch my Blue Eyes White Dragon to defence mode and that ends my turn," Kaiba said.

A facedown card appeared on the field and the Blue Eyes White Dragon went into a defence position.

"That's it," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Oh well, Black Eyes, attack with Dark Lightning."

* * *

Author's notes: Wow, great cliffhanger huh? Will Kaiba be able to find a way to destroy the Black Eyes Dark Dragon and win the duel? Can he last long enough to find a weakness? Anyway, I thought that I would make this duel a mixture of the duel between Yugi and Yami in the Orichalcos Saga in which both Yugi and Yami started off with an identical hand and the duel between Yami and Rafael in the same saga in which a card from the player's hand had to be sacrificed in order to keep a monster on the field whenever it was attacked. By another monster, magic card or another monster's special ability. However, unlike Yami's duel with Rafael, Kaiba doesn't have a Legendary Dragon to help him out, so it only makes his predicament even harder to get out of. I knew I said that I would end the dream sequence this chapter, but as I was writing, I noticed how it seemed to be dragged out, so I decided to end it with a cliffhanger, but fear not because next chapter will definitely end the dream sequence and then Kaiba can get to apologising to Serenity and winning her heart. Anyway, till next time. 


	8. Conquering the darkness

**When Vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 8: Conquering the darkness**

Disclaimer: I don't own any the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh. They are owned by Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

"That's it," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Oh well, Black Eyes, attack with Dark Lightning."

Kaiba was currently in a duel with his evil counterpart. Both had thirteen hundred life points left, but Evil-Kaiba had the Black Eyes Dark Dragon out on the field, which was a dark version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon and it received five hundred attack points for each Blue Eyes White Dragon on either side of the field and in either duellist's graveyard and just now, it had fifty-five hundred attack points since Kaiba had already played two of his Blue Eyes' and Evil-Kaiba had all three of his in the graveyard and it's base attack and defence points were the same at the Blue Eyes White Dragon's.

The Black Eyes Dark Dragon's Dark Lightning attack looked like a black version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon's White Lightning attack. It went towards Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon, which was currently in defence mode. Kaiba also had a facedown card on the field.

"Reveal trap card, Negate Attack," Kaiba, said, "Your attack is stopped."

The Dark Lightning attack hit the Negate Attack card on the field after it was activated and disappeared.

"Lucky move," Evil-Kaiba, said, "However, my creature can't be destroyed. As long as I discard one card from my hand to the graveyard, Black Eyes is able to revive itself."

"I'm out of options," Kaiba, thought, "How can I defeat that monstrosity?"

"You can't," Evil-Kaiba, said aloud, "This creature was created to be indestructible. You see, five thousand years ago, when Aknadin betrayed the Pharaoh; he became the Shadow Magus or the Dark Priest, servant of the Dark One. After this thief invaded the palace, we or should I say our five thousand-year-old self went out to look for a ka stronger that his Diabound ka. We tortured people into revealing their kas, but none were powerful enough to defeat Diabound. However, we came across this foreign girl who possessed a ka so powerful that it was thought to surpass even the Egyptian God Monsters. This was Kisara and she possessed the Blue Eyes White Dragon."

"I still don't believe in those fairytales," Kaiba, said, "And you just proved that you're not me because if you were, you wouldn't have believed them either."

"You still say that," Evil-Kaiba, said, "You're in denial. You know that those "fairytales" are the truth, yet you're too afraid to acknowledge it, not that it matters whether you believe in them or not. Once I win this duel, I'll be free again and without you to get in my way, I'll be free to kill Yugi, Wheeler and the dweeb brigade then no one will dare oppose me."

"You're nuts," Kaiba, said, "I don't see why megalomaniacs like you think they can rule the world through a mere card game. Marik had that delusion and Pegasus thought he could use the game to bring back his dead wife, the delusional twit. I'm surrounded by people with crazy delusions."

Evil-Kaiba said, "It's your move."

Kaiba drew from his deck.

"I don't see how I can defeat his Black Eyes Dark Dragon," he thought, "If I destroy it, it'll just revive itself as long as he has at least one card to send to the graveyard. Yugi always finds way out of those kinds of situations. Just when it looks like he's beaten, he somehow manages to pull off a miracle and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat."

He remembered when Yugi first defeated him using Exodia and watching him defeat Strings by forcing him to use up all the cards in his deck when he played Slifer the Sky Dragon. Both times, Yugi had won when it looked like he would lose and from what he was told during the whole virtual world escapade, Yugi was able to defeat Noah with only one hundred life points and Noah had over ten thousand life points. It seemed impossible, but somehow, Yugi pulled it off.

Kaiba looked at the card he drew and smiled.

"Perhaps there's hope for me after all," he thought, "This card ought to deal with that little revival problem."

"I place two cards facedown on the field," he said, "And I play, not one, but two Cost Down magic cards so I can summon my third Blue Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500) in defence mode."

Two facedown cards appeared on the field along with Kaiba's third Blue Eyes.

(Black Eyes Dark Dragon: 6000/2500)

"I may have strengthened your monster," Kaiba, said, "But I have a plan and with that, I'll end my turn."

Evil-Kaiba said, "You must've lost it. So you'd rather lose than forfeit. Not surprising. I would do the same thing if I were in your shoes since we are one and the same. Anyway, Black Eyes, attack his Blue Eyes that was already on the field before he summoned that other one."

Black Eyes fired its Dark Lightning attack, but Kaiba said, "Not so fast, reveal facedown card, Swords of Revealing Light. This paralyses your dragon for three whole turns."

The attack vanished when Kaiba activated the card and Evil-Kaiba's dragon was surrounded by energy swords that lit the place up (hence the name, Swords of Revealing Light).

"You're stalling," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Just face it; there's nothing in your deck that can beat my dragon. Even Yugi wouldn't be able to get himself out of this one."

Kaiba said, "Oh really, well I've already devised a way to bring your dragon down you impostor."

Evil-Kaiba said, "Oh really? This dragon is unstoppable. It was created from the darkness in Aknadin when he took control of our mind. You see, we saved Kisara from an angry mob that was out to kill her because she was a foreigner and they believed she was bad luck. We brought her back to the palace to recuperate, but we told Aknadin about her and he immediately started planning on how we could use the Blue Eyes White Dragon to ascend to power. However, in order to claim it, Kisara had to die, but we refused to do it. Aknadin however, he was willing to kill her. He had always been willing to kill innocents just to get what he wanted and used the "It's for the greater good" excuse to justify his actions. After all, the guy had an entire village massacred just to create the Millennium Items and he did it all behind his brother, the Pharaoh's back. The Pharaoh authorised the massacre without even knowing that it was a massacre he had approved of. Had he known what creating the Millennium Items would've meant, he would've never have authorised their creation. Anyway, Aknadin tried to draw Kisara's ka out by getting prisoners to challenge her with their kas, but she only released it to save us." Aknadin was impressed and was even more determined to have us possess it. However, we went to join the Pharaoh, leaving Kisara to recuperate once again. However, Aknadin appeared to the Pharaoh as the Shadow Magus and announced his treachery and also announced that he was our father and the Pharaoh's uncle, being the brother of the Pharaoh's father, the previous pharaoh and all."

"Is there a point to this story?" Kaiba said.

"I'm getting to it," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Anyway, after Aknadin left, we chased after him and Kisara obviously woke up and went out to look for us. We found Aknadin and Kisara found us and it was us and Kisara against Aknadin. However, once Kisara summoned her dragon, Aknadin killed her and we killed Aknadin, or at least his physical being. His soul survived and infiltrated our mind and took control of us and the Pharaoh arrived and we fought him under Aknadin's control, but before the finishing blow could be delivered, Kisara's spirit caused the Blue Eyes White Dragon to betray him. However, before he died, Aknadin was able to transfer a portion of his darkness to the Blue Eyes White Dragon and that is how the Black Eyes Dark Dragon came into being. It is the negative of the Blue Eyes White Dragon."

"I know that much," Kaiba, said, "You didn't have to go into a fairytale to get that across."

"If I heard that when I was still part of you, I'd probably say the same thing," Evil-Kaiba, said, "But being in the Shadow Realm has opened my eyes to the truth. We were the Pharaoh's rival five thousand years ago, but whether you believe it or not is meaningless. I will win this anyway and finish what you started. Now I believe that we're done with all the chitchat. Let's just duel and if I'm correct, it's your turn."

"I couldn't agree more," Kaiba, said, "First I play the magic card, Monster Reborn to revive my fallen Blue Eyes."

The Monster Reborn card appeared on the field and started to glow and then Kaiba's third Blue Eyes rose up from the ground.

"Then I use my Polymerisation card to merge all three into Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500/3800)," Kaiba finished.

The Polymerisation card appeared on the field and Kaiba's three dragons became spiralling circles and they moved into each other and the result was a Blue Eyes White Dragon with three heads, fifteen hundred more attack points and eight hundred more defence points.

"Lucky for you fusion monsters can't attack on the same turn they were formed," Kaiba, said, "So I end my turn."

"Don't you mean that you're lucky that your Swords of Revealing Light are in play? My Dragon outranks yours by fifteen hundred points. It may be one dragon on the field, but it's made up of three separate dragons. Black Eyes doesn't work like Yugi's Buster Blader and Dark Paladin, which only receives the power boost for one dragon, even a fusion dragon. For my dragon, your one dragon still counts as three dragons."

Kaiba said, "Just make your move."

"I think I'll pass this turn," Evil-Kaiba, said, "My dragon can't be stopped and any magic or trap card you use against it will only delay the inevitable."

"That's what you think," Kaiba, thought, "My facedown card will deal with your dragon's revival ability. All I have to do it keep it facedown on the field for six whole turns and that was number two. If what Yugi says about cockiness being a weakness is true, then hopefully he'll be so cocky that he'll forget about my facedown card altogether."

"I'll pass as well," Kaiba said.

"What's Seto planning?" Noah said from the sidelines.

"I think I know," Kisara, said, "It has something to do what his facedown card and if it's what I think it is, Seto could potentially prevent Black Eyes Dark Dragon from reviving itself once it goes to the graveyard. He just has to keep it on the field for four more turns."

"Wow," Noah, said, "What card could it be?"

Kisara said, "He used it in his match with Yugi at Battle City and it has the potential to render Slifer the Sky Dragon useless."

Back with the duel, Evil-Kaiba smirked.

"I'll pass this turn," he said.

"Turn number three," Kaiba, thought, "Excellent. Just three more turns to go and only one more before my Swords of Revealing Light ware off."

He drew from his deck and smiled.

"Just what I need for my dragon to gain the attack points it needs to wipe out his dragon," he thought, "But I better play it safe just in case."

"I place two cards facedown on the field and that ends my turn," Kaiba said.

Two more facedown cards appeared on the field.

"I'll pass my turn," Evil-Kaiba said confidently.

"Your overconfidence will cost you," Kaiba, thought, "You do have my duelling attitude, I'll give you that. However, Yugi told me that it was my attitude that cost me the duel. I never thought I'd be saying this, but for once, I hope Yugi's right. "

"I'll pass my turn as well," Kaiba said.

"Big mistake," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Now I'm free to attack. Black Eyes, Dark Lightning attack."

Black Eyes fired its Dark Lightning attack.

"Reveal facedown cards, Shining Palace and Dragon Rage (not to be confused with Dragon's Rage)," Kaiba said.

Two of his facedown cards rose up. The shining palace and a card with a picture of an angry longing Dragon on it. A red vapour cloud came out of the card and went over to Kaiba's Ultimate Dragon and the dragon appeared to absorb the vapour.

(Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon: 5500/3800)

"Allow me to explain," Kaiba, said, "Shining Palace increases any light attribute monsters' attack points by five hundred and Dragon Rage increases any dragon type monster's attack points by five hundred and since my dragon is both a light attribute and a dragon type monster, it gets a grand total of one thousand attack points and I only lose five hundred life points."

Kaiba's dragon was destroyed.

(Kaiba's LP: 800)

Evil-Kaiba said, "It's over, you've lost. Though I admit that I am surprised that you have cards in your deck that you never had before."

"I've been tuning my deck since my defeat at Battle City," Kaiba, said, "And although I don't like him, Pegasus has been giving me some of his old and newest cards in the hopes that I'll forgive him for that whole Duellist Kingdom episode, ha, like that'll ever happen. However, it's good business."

"I see," Evil-Kaiba, said, "There's still some of me left in you."

"Oh please," Kaiba, said, "Anyway, it's my move. First I play the magic card, Mining for Magical Stones, with allows me to retrieve a magic card from my graveyard and I choose Monster Reborn to revive my Ultimate Dragon."

After he received Monster Reborn again, he played it and his Ultimate Dragon was revived.

"Did I mention that my Shining Palace and Dragon Rage cards were permanent magic cards?" Kaiba, said, "It means that it still has fifty-five hundred attack points."

"It doesn't matter," Evil-Kaiba, said, "This is great. I can get to destroy your dragon all over again."

"That's what you think," Kaiba, thought, "Now I have all I need and with only three cards in your hand, I don't have to wait till next turn to activate my trap."

"Next I activate my trap card, Life Shaver, you know, the facedown card that I laid down along with the Swords of Revealing Light?"

He activated the card and said, "Now you have to discard as many cards from your hand equal to the turn of turns its been facedown on the field."

Evil-Kaiba discarded his three cards in his hand.

"What's the point in this?" he said.

"My point is that without any cards in your hand, your dragon is unable to revive itself," Kaiba, said, "And to deal with the problem of your dragon, being stronger than mine, I play my Pump Up magic card, which doubles my dragon's attack points for one whole turn."

He activated his next card, which made his dragon stronger.

(Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon: 11000/3800)

"Oh no," Evil-Kaiba, said, "Looks like you pulled a Yugi, but how?"

Kaiba said, "Guess he was right about my attitude being my downfall. Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack and rid the field of his Black Eyes Dark Dragon with your Neutron Blast."

Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon fired its attack at Black Eyes Dark Dragon and since Evil-Kaiba had no more cards to send to the graveyard, it was destroyed.

(Evil-Kaiba's LP: 0)

"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!" Evil-Kaiba screamed.

He suddenly started to bulge and change shape.

Kaiba said, "What the?"

Evil-Kaiba became a bit smaller and was fat. He no longer looked like Kaiba. He had the same dark brown tinge to his skin, only it was darker than before. He had small pink bits of hair on his head. He looked downright ugly and deformed.

"I knew you were an impostor," Kaiba said.

"Wrong," Evil-Kaiba, said, "This is what the Shadow Realm did to me."

Kaiba didn't believe it. This freak didn't even have his voice anymore.

"You did it Seto," Kisara said coming up to him.

"As promised, you will get to leave," Noah added.

"Good riddance," Kaiba, said, "I'm sick of this place."

"I was so close," "Evil-Kaiba", said, "So close."

"Oh go back to the shadows," Kisara said, holding her hand out.

"Evil-Kaiba" felt an invisible force push him backwards.

"I'll get you for this," he said before he vanished.

Kaiba said, "Thank you, that guy was getting on my nerves."

Kisara said, "Now go and save Serenity."

"Save her?" Kaiba said.

"Yes," Kisara, said, "I fear that in her current emotional state, she might do something drastic to herself."

"But all I did was have her test results altered, he room trashed and her mother and brother beaten up," Kaiba said.

"True," Kisara, said, "But you now know of Serenity's personality disorder now. It wouldn't take a lot to completely devastate her. Sure her mother and brother will recover, but when you had her test results altered, you ruined her career plans and when you had her room trashed, your lackeys destroyed two of her most treasured possessions that meant the world to her, her diary and a locket her mother gave her."

Kaiba gasped.

"There's still time Seto," Noah, said, "If you hurry, you might be able to save her."

* * *

Suddenly, the whole place lit up and Kisara and Noah faded from Kaiba's vision and the next thing Kaiba knew, he was lying on his bed awake. He got up and looked at the time. "Only 8:15," he said, "I was out for too hours."

He got up and rushed out of the house. He had no idea if what happened in his "dream" really happened, but in his current state of mind, he wasn't going to chance it.

He got into his limo and said, "Take me to the hospital and quickly."

The driver said, "Yes sir, but why?"

"That's none of your business," Kaiba said.

The driver just sighed.

"Guess he'll never change," he thought.

The limo pulled out of the mansion grounds and drove towards the hospital and Kaiba was hoping that he wasn't too late to save Serenity. Normally he would've passed off the experience as a dream, but after hearing Mrs Wheeler describing Serenity's disorder, he had became so worried that he forgot that he didn't believe in that sort of thing.

* * *

Author's notes: So Kaiba managed to defeat his dark side. However, that's just the first step. Now he's got to save Serenity and apologise, not to mention talk her out of committing suicide. Can he do it and more importantly, can he be forgiven? I know that perhaps Kaiba's acting a bit out-of-character, but for the purposes of this fic, it's essential, but don't worry. No matter how well someone changes, a part of who they were before will always be apart of them and I intend to leave some of Kaiba's old personality within him. I know that for the duel sequence that Kaiba used cards that wouldn't normally be in his deck, but that was all for the purposes of defeating his evil counterpart's Black Eyes Dark Dragon and I hope that the explanation that Pegasus seeking forgiveness from Kaiba over Duellist Kingdom will suffice despite the fact that Pegasus wasn't seeking forgiveness in the anime. Anyway, till next time. 


	9. Saving Serenity

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 9: Saving Serenity**

Disclaimer: I don't own any the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh. They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

At Domino City Hospital, Serenity Wheeler sat depressed in the lobby. She had Tristen and Tea sitting on either side of her. She was absolutely devastated. First, the results of an important test at school were altered, then her room and possessions were destroyed and to top it all off, her mother and brother had both been beaten and it was all thanks to Seto Kaiba. She had stood up for Joey and humiliated him. She had been quite proud of that fact. Many people saw it and Kaiba had become the laughing stock of the area, but anyone that knew Kaiba would also know that no one got off scott-free when they humiliated Kaiba. Yugi was the only exception since he had humiliated him in Duel Monsters and Kaiba had yet to beat him in a fair duel. Serenity did hear from the others that Kaiba defeated Yugi at Duellist Kingdom, but that was due to the fact Kaiba had threatened suicide. Yugi had the match won, but Kaiba, unable to accept it decided that he'd rather die that suffer another defeat, at least that what Serenity thought. She didn't know that Pegasus that kidnapped Mokuba and told Kaiba that if he didn't defeat Yugi, then Mokuba's soul would be his forever. Kaiba just couldn't bear the thought of going on in the world without his brother and was too blinded with pride to allow Yugi to go in and save Mokuba.

Speaking of Mokuba, Mokuba was in the seat next to Tea fast asleep. After he found out what his brother had done to Serenity, he had basically told Kaiba that enough was enough and that he was through defending him against verbal assaults that were mostly true. Mokuba may have stuck up for his brother, but he wasn't stupid. He could see why many of the people that badmouthed his brother would do it. However, he had thought a small part of the person that his brother once was, was still inside him, but after what he did to Serenity, Mokuba had decided that he had thought wrong.

"Man, it's so quiet!" Tristen said, bursting with frustration.

"Calm down," Tea, said, "Maybe we should go home."

"Calm down," Tristen, said, "How can I calm down when my buddy's in one of the wards here after a beating from Kaiba? Man the next time I see that Kaiba, I'm gonna split his freakin' head wide-open."

Tea sighed. She knew that whenever Tristen got frustrated, it was almost impossible to calm him down. Tristen started pacing up and down again.

"I'm going for a walk guys," Serenity said quietly. However, it was so quiet that no one even heard her. Tristen was busy pacing up and down, Tea was watching him with growing annoyance and Yugi was too into a magazine, so no one noticed her leave and Serenity was too depressed to realise or even care that her last statement had been ignored. She walked over to the stairwell and started climbing the stairs. Her life was ruined. Thanks to her altered test results, he career plans had been set back. If it had been that alone, Serenity would've probably have learned to move on, but after her room was ransacked and her possessions destroyed, she knew that she couldn't replace them. Sure she could've bought a new diary, but all the previous entries in her old one were gone for good and she didn't remember everything that she had written in them and her locket was a one-of-a-kind. However, if that wasn't enough, Kaiba had to go and have her mother and brother beaten. It completely devastated her to the point where she felt that life wasn't worth living. Sure, her mother and brother would recover, but in her devastated state, Serenity had over exaggerated their condition. She thought that they were injured for life. She couldn't bear it, she just couldn't. She looked up the stairwell and nodded. She decided that she was going to put herself out of her own misery by jumping off the hospital roof. She knew the fall would kill her.

"Why should I live on when my life's going to be nothing but endless misery?" she thought, "I should end it now."

Since she was taken away from Joey, she had felt lonely. Because of her nature, she had been too afraid to make friends out of fear that her quietness would cause others to reject her. She only had her mother and the thoughts of her brother. Those two things had stopped her from trying to commit suicide before. Now that she felt the two people that mattered the most in her life were suffering from permanent injuries. Two people in her may not have been much, but Serenity admit that it was better than no one. It could've been worse. Joey could've ended up like their father just as their mother had thought and her mother could've abandoned her since after being separated from Joey, Joey was all she ever talked about. Mrs Wheeler could've just dumped her off at an orphanage or somewhere like that infuriated that her daughter would rather be with her son, whom she saw as nothing more than a younger version of her ex. However, she didn't. She just put up with it and helped her cope.

* * *

Seto Kaiba arrived at the hospital in his limo and rushed into the lobby. Unfortunately, he caught the attention of Yugi, Tristen and Tea.

"It's Kaiba," Tea said

"That snake," Tristen, said, "He's got a lot of guts showing his face here after what he did to Serenity."

Kaiba came up to them.

"Where's Serenity?" he asked.

"Kaiba, how could you?" Yugi said in a tone filled with both anger and heartbreak. He was clearly fighting back tears.

If Kaiba didn't know any better, he could've sworn that Yugi felt betrayed, but why? He never saw Yugi as a friend, did he? He knew that Yugi saw him as a friend and maintained that believe even when Kaiba had repeated denied it to his face. Yet why was Kaiba feeling sorry? This was Yugi Moto, the only one to ever defeat him in a duel. Well Pegasus also managed to defeat him, as did Noah, but in both cases, it was due to cheating and Kaiba cheated in his second duel with Yugi, so in his mind, those matches didn't count. He may be a ruthless duellist, but at least he duelled fairly. The only time he ever cheated was because of his brother.

"Spare me," Kaiba said, maintaining his "I don't care about anyone" attitude.

"You got some nerve showing yer face here," Tristen said as he waved his fist in front of Kaiba's face in a threatening manner. Kaiba, unfortunately for Tristen was not intimidated in the slightest. He didn't even flinch.

"Tristen's right," Tea, agreed, "You have got a lot of nerve coming here. Your little revenge campaign against Serenity has gone too far."

"That's why I'm here," Kaiba, said, "Now where is she?"

That's when Yugi, Tristen and Tea realised that Serenity was missing

"She was just here," Yugi said.

"Why'd you want to see her anyway?" Tristen asked suspiciously, "Do you want to rub what you've done to her in her face?"

"I don't have time to waste on you geeks," Kaiba said. True, he may have been trying to save Serenity and apologise to her, but he sure as Hell wasn't going to admit it openly to anyone.

"Where could Serenity have gotten to?" Tea said, forgetting that Kaiba was present and her anger towards him.

"Kaiba here probably scared her off," Tristen said angrily.

"Oh please," Kaiba, said, "If you idiots had been paying attention to your surroundings rather than what you were doing, you'd have realised that she was gone before I showed up." Suddenly, a frightening thought occurred to him. Without warning, he rushed towards the stairwell, pushing Tristen and Tea aside.

Tea fell back into her seat, but Tristen stumbled backwards and fell into someone.

"Hey watch it jerk," Tristen said.

However, when he spun round to confront the person, he immediately regretted what he said. The man was a big seven and a half-foot tall man was an incredible muscular build. He glared at Tristen.

"Nice day huh?" Tristen said nervously.

BAM! The man punched Tristen in the face and he stumbled back and ended up in the seat to Tea's right.

Mokuba stirred.

"What's happening?" he said as he awoke from his sleep.

* * *

Kaiba didn't know how, but he somehow knew what Serenity was planning to do. Since he realised that Serenity hadn't been present in the lobby when he arrived, he kept wondering if he was too late. He just couldn't let Serenity go through with it. She was only thirteen-going-on-fourteen and still had her life ahead of her. Kaiba didn't know why he loved Serenity. After all, considering who she was related to, Kaiba had been surprised to discover that he loved her. How ironic that it a situation that she was in dire peril and he was the instigator of that situation to make him realise that he loved her. There was also the issue that she was five years younger than he was and technically still just a minor, but Kaiba didn't care. It wasn't like he was planning on marrying her. He knew that to do so would get him in trouble with the law. Besides, he also knew it would be rushing things. He could wait till she came of age to legally get married and it was also a chance for him to take it each step at a time. That was assuming that Serenity forgave him, which he doubted. However, if she couldn't forgive him, then Kaiba decided that at least she should know that he was sorry and that suicide wasn't the answer.

"Please don't be too late," he thought to himself as he ran up the flights of stairs.

* * *

Serenity had reached the hospital roof. She was surprised to find the door to the roof unlocked. The way up to the roof was only meant for maintenance crews and window cleaners to get to the high windows. At first Serenity thought that someone was outside and feared that her plan would be ruined. However, upon further inspection, she was relieved to find no one outside. Someone must've forgotten to lock the door when they were done. Serenity walked outside and walked to the edge. Looking down made her dizzy, but she wasn't planning on just jumping off. She decided that a running jump would be more appropriate. She didn't want any of the patients near the ward windows noticing her. She backed up till she was at the opposite end and began to run.

"Goodbye cruel world," she thought.

However, suddenly, Kaiba burst out of the door that Serenity had came through and saw that she was about to jump.

"No," he said as he lunged at her and then tackled her to the ground. He was lucky that she had been so close to him otherwise he probably wouldn't have been able to stop her.

Serenity was in a daze and she shook her head. What had just happened?

Kaiba stood in front of her, ready to move in to stop her should she decide to continue her suicide attempt.

Serenity recovered from her daze and glared at the person that dared stop her. To her, someone had obviously been working on the roof after all and had saw what she was going to and decided to stop her, but to her surprise, her rescuer was none other than Seto Kaiba, the guy responsible for her recent misery.

"Kaiba," she said, "Why did you save me? Do you want to devastate me more? Is me killing myself not enough for you? Why must you torture me? I'd think you had enough satisfaction out of beating up my mother and brother."

Kaiba sighed. This would be difficult. Saying that he was sorry was pretty easy, but convincing her that he meant it, not to mention deterring her from committing suicide was another.

"Look Serenity," Kaiba, said, "This is hard on me and I still don't understand it fully myself, I want to say that I'm sorry for everything I've done to you."

"Oh," Serenity, said, "What happened to Wheelerette? Are you going to call me a bitch now since that is the proper name for a female dog and you've insulted Joey enough with dog jokes? Is this part of your plan?"

"Listen Serenity, you can believe what you want, but suicide isn't the way out. Believe me, have you ever considered the impact it would leave on your family and friends?"

"Why would you care?" Serenity, said, "Is it because Mokuba finally saw you for what you truly are and ditched you?"

Kaiba said, "Like I said, believe what you want. However, the reason I came here is because my conscience caught up with me. I realise that I went too far. Look I know that you have a personality disorder that makes you get devastated easier than others. I don't know why my conscience caught up with me because until recently, I never thought I had one. I also realised that I love you Serenity. I don't know why; believe me I don't know why considering who you're related to."

Serenity looked into Kaiba's eyes. Her intention was to glare into them and tell him that he was full of it, but when she saw the look in his eyes, she could tell that Kaiba meant what he said.

"Look," Kaiba, continued, "I don't expect forgiveness. All I want is for you to know that I'm sorry for what I did to you and that what you're doing is a mistake. You'll be causing an awful lot of pain to a lot of people, more pain that I caused you. Do you think your mother and brother will not care that you're dead? I may have insulted your brother countless times in the past, but he's got heart. When it comes to you, his usual street-thug attitude vanishes and from what I heard, he entered the Duellist Kingdom tournament to get the prize money in order to save your eyesight."

Serenity considered what Kaiba was saying. True, she never thought about what others would've thought had she committed suicide. Now that she thought about it, she realised that perhaps that would've made matters worse. Joey, in his anger would've probably have blamed Kaiba and his rivalry might've grown into a murderous grudge and Serenity knew that no matter how heartless Kaiba was, even he didn't deserve that. Her mother would've probably have blamed Joey because she didn't know Kaiba that well and hadn't even met him in person and to be frank, their would've been no one else for Mrs Wheeler to pin the blame on and it probably would've only fuelled Joey's desire to kill Kaiba Serenity realised that she had been selfish. Kaiba really meant what he said about being sorry, which was unusual. He normally only ever said sorry just to get on with his business and he never really meant it. This time however, he had come to her and apologised himself without anyone forcing him to. She could just chose to let him wallow in misery. It would be the ultimate revenge, but looking at him, she realised that she couldn't. Kaiba had also been devastated when he lost Mokuba and losing Mokuba was enough for him to go insane.

"I guess I can forgive you," Serenity, said, "But why do you love me?"

"I already said it," Kaiba, said, "I don't know why. When I saw you devastated and my conscience started to catch up with me, I guess I realised it. I'm really sorry Serenity, but if you'd like, I could try and have your grade for that last test changed."

"It's a start," Serenity, said, "But nothing will repair my locket or my diary."

Kaiba sighed. It was unfortunate that he couldn't reverse all the damage done, but at least Serenity was beginning to feel better.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can fix those. However, I'm sure you don't need a locket to remember your mother. She's always with you in your heart." "I can't believe I'm doing this," he added in his thoughts, "But it feels nice and comforting. You were wrong Gozaburo. Guess I won another one over you."

Serenity looked at Kaiba. He did look pretty handsome. If not for his cold attitude, he'd probably have girls swooning over him and he had gone out of his way to save her knowing that she probably would never forgive him for what he did to her. It was very out-of-character for him. However on the bright side, he'd saved her from making a mistake, a mistake that could've cost Kaiba his life. She could argue that he was only trying to get Mokuba back, but looking into his eyes, she could tell that Kaiba meant every word he said, including the part about loving her.

"I love you to," she said, "But don't expect me to marry you."

Kaiba was astonished. He hadn't expected that. How could Serenity return those feelings after what he did to her?

"Don't worry," Kaiba, said, "Marriage isn't on the agenda, at least not for a good few years."

"Good," Serenity, said, "Because I'm still just a minor. I really admire the way you came to me and apologised and opened yourself up to me. I could tell you meant it just by looking into your eyes. I have to say you look really handsome. I bet if not for your attitude, you'd have girls swooning over you."

"I never thought much on relationships," Kaiba, said, "Gozaburo told me that love was what made humans weak and that all wives are good for are producing heirs. I can see now that he was wrong."

Little did either of them know that Yami had watched the whole thing from the door back down into the hospital. He had a smile on his face.

"Let's just hope your newly discovered kindness lasts Kaiba," he thought.

* * *

Author's Notes: Okay, so Kaiba saved Serenity. However, that's not the end of it. There's still Joey and Mrs Wheeler who were victims of Kaiba's revenge to apologise to and knowing Joey, he's not as forgiving as his sister and how will both mother and son react to the news that Serenity and Kaiba love each other? You can bet that they won't take it too well. How ironic that Kaiba ends up falling for the girl whose life he set out to destroy. I know if you think the whole sequence between Kaiba and Serenity was a bit lame, but I had unfortunately experienced a bit of writer's block. Anyway, next til, will Kaiba be forgiven by all and how will Joey and Mrs Wheeler react to the news that Serenity and Kaiba have fallen for one another? Till next time. 


	10. The hardest part

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 10: The hardest part**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh. They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

Kaiba had just saved Serenity from killing herself and had just opened up to her and much to Kaiba's surprise, Serenity had not only forgiven him, but also admitted that she loved him as well. The two on them embraced each other and Kaiba smiled. A week ago, he would've never have even dreamed of doing this. Back then, he would've seen this as weakness. However, he didn't feel weak. In fact, he felt stronger. He still didn't believe that what happened in his head was real, but he realised that regardless of whether he believed it was real or not, it was his determination to get to Serenity and apologise to her that overcame that impostor.

"Hey you two," came an unfamiliar voice, "What the heck are you doing up here? This area is off limits to the public."

They both spun round and saw a workman standing at the door.

"Well," he said, "I'm waiting. What's your excuse for being up here and it better not be that you were looking for a private place to…"

He stopped as soon as he noticed Kaiba's glare.

"It's not what you think," Kaiba, said, "This girl's only thirteen going on fourteen for crying out loud. If you must know, I was saving her from making a mistake."

The workman gulped and Serenity said, "It's true. I wanted to take my own life."

The workman then nodded in understanding.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it," he said, "Now get inside."

Kaiba led Serenity inside and down the stairs. He knew that although he may have saved Serenity and earned her forgiveness, he knew that he wasn't out of the woods yet. He still had to see Joey and Mrs Wheeler, not to mention Mokuba. Mokuba would probably forgive him and go back with him instantly, but Joey and his mother were another story. He knew that Joey didn't like him and he had no idea the kind of person Mrs Wheeler was. Sure, he had overheard Joey telling the others about how viewed his mother in school, but that was just his opinion of her. Kaiba just hoped that his newfound love for Serenity wouldn't break up the Wheeler Family any more that it already had been.

* * *

Back down in the lobby, Tristen was caressing his face, which had just been punched. Kaiba had barged passed him and shoved him into a big muscular guy and Tristen made the mistake of yelling at him.

"Man when I get hold of that Kaiba, he's a dead man," he complained.

"Quit complaining," Tea, said, "I'm worried about where Serenity is."

"She's fine. Probably went to see her brother or something," Tristen replied.

Tea was on her last nerve. She had put up with Tristen's pacing and complaining ever since they arrived at the hospital and truth be told, she was about ready to deck him one. She wouldn't normally do something like that, but after hours of nothing but annoying pacing and complaining, Tea was at breaking point.

"Here comes Serenity now," Yugi said, unknowingly preventing the situation between Tristen and Tea from getting worse.

Tristen was about to go over to Serenity, but then he noticed Kaiba with his arm slung round her back.

"Hey rich-boy," he said angrily, "Get yer disgusting mitts offa her."

Kaiba only glared at him.

"What happened?" Tea said. Either she understood what Kaiba had done or she chose to ignore him. Kaiba decided that the latter was probably correct since he got the message that Tea didn't like him that much.

"I was going to kill myself," Serenity, admitted, "But Kaiba here stopped me."

"Why?" Tristen asked Kaiba suspiciously, "So you can emotionally torture her some more?"

"I was apologising," Kaiba said, obviously annoyed with Tristen. Out of all the "geeks", Tristen was the one that had tried to get off with Serenity the most. Duke Devlin also had tried, but he was mostly away on business, usually business related to his game, Dungeon Dice Monsters.

"Yeah right," Tristen, said, "Since when have you ever apologised and really meant it?"

"It's true," Serenity, said, "He did apologise to me."

Tristen was shocked. Was Serenity defending him? Nah, why would she defend a heartless ass like Kaiba?

"Believe what you want to Tristen," Kaiba, said, "Because to be honest, I could care less what you think."

Tristen was left in shock, much to Serenity's pleasure. It was about time someone put Tristen in his place. Serenity felt that Tristen was only interested in her because of her beauty. She remembered all the lies he told her about how he was the one that taught Joey how to play Duel Monsters, taking credit from Yugi's grandpa. Sure after he lost to Nezbitt, he came clean, but that was only because, at least to Serenity he had no other choice. If he hadn't have lost, he probably would've kept on lying to her just to get her to like him.

"Later," Kaiba, said, "We're off to finish what I came here for."

"He Seto, wait up!" Mokuba yelled chasing after his brother and Serenity who were heading towards Joey and Mrs Wheeler's rooms.

"Wow," Tea, said, "That was weird."

"I only hope Kaiba's newfound kindness lasts," Yugi said.

Yami appeared next to him and nodded.

"I don't believe it," Tristen, said, "Why'd Serenity forgive him?"

"Maybe it's because this time, Kaiba really meant it," Tea replied in a half-angry tone.

"Yeah right," Tristen, said, "He'll probably dump her, the first chance he gets."

"Maybe you're right," Tea, said, "Maybe not. However, as much as it's hard to believe, Kaiba is human after all. He does have feelings like everyone else, though he tends to keep them bottled up."

Tristen growled. As much as he wanted to disagree, Tea did have a point. At the end of the day, Kaiba was only human. True he preferred to keep himself to himself, but that didn't mean to say that he didn't have a conscience. Perhaps after so many years, Kaiba's conscience had finally caught up with him. What angered Tristen was the fact that he had lost Serenity to the last person he thought he'd ever lose her to. If there was anyone that he expected to win Serenity over him, it was Duke Devlin, but he was away and Tristen had been caught off guard.

Yugi said, "Tea, I think we need to give Tristen some alone time."

Tea nodded, but Tristen said, "Thanks guys, but I'll go elsewhere. A hospital lobby isn't the appropriate place for me to think."

Tristen then left and Tea said, "Do you think he'll be okay Yugi?"

"I hope so," Yugi said.

* * *

Kaiba, Serenity and Mokuba came to the door of Joey's room. They decided to tell Mrs Wheeler last since she was the mother and the one that would ultimately have to approve of their relationship. Serenity was nervous. She knew that because Kaiba had Joey beaten up that Joey's hatred towards Kaiba probably would've increased a hundred fold. What she feared was her brother despising her because of her love for Kaiba, his rival.

Kaiba knocked on the door.

"Come in," Joey's voice came, "Door's open."

Kaiba walked in with Mokuba and Serenity nervously bringing up the rear.

Joey glared at Kaiba, not realising that his sister was with him.

"What're ya doin' here Moneybags?" he said, "Come to boast at me some more?"

"No," Kaiba, said, "As strange as this sounds, even to me, I just want to say that I'm… sorry."

As much as Kaiba had changed, he still had difficulty letting go of his pride and his pride was telling him what it always told him about Joey; that Joey was nothing but a worthless mutt and a low-class duellist that only got where he was today through sheer luck and Yugi's coaching.

Joey said, "You're sorry, after what ya did ta me and my ma. I may not like my ma, but even I wouldn't go as far as to have her beaten up."

"I don't expect your forgiveness," Kaiba, said, "All I expect from you is to know that I'm sorry. Call me a liar if you want, but can you look me in the eye and say it?"

Joey, always being one to what to show Kaiba up, decided to take him up on that offer. However, when he saw Kaiba's eyes, he just couldn't. Joey could see that behind Kaiba's façade, he genuinely was sorry for what he did.

"Okay, so what if I believe ya?" he said, "It doesn't mean that I'll forgive ya."

"Like I said before Joseph, I don't expect forgive, just you knowing that I'm sorry."

"I'm not a dog!" Joey yelled, but then realised what Kaiba had said.

Kaiba chuckled.

"Nobody calls me Joseph except my ma," Joey, said, "I may not like her, but for some reason, I'm comfortable with her called me dat."

"By the way Wheeler," Kaiba, said, "You should thank me because I just saved your sister from killing herself."

Joey was surprised and he then noticed Serenity in a corner. Kaiba went outside to wait on Serenity.

"Is this true Serenity?" he said.

Serenity just nodded.

Joey said, "Serenity, why'd you want to kill yerself?" However, he already knew the answer.

"I was selfish," Serenity, said, "I thought that my life was ruined. After what Kaiba did, I thought that I was a lost cause. My career plans were squashed and you and mom were in the hospital."

"It's okay," Joey, said, "Da doctor said that we'll be outta here in a few days."

"But I thought that Kaiba crippled you," Serenity, said, "I…"

"Don't worry sis," Joey, interrupted, "However, ya gotta learn that things aren't as bad as they first appear. I'm not saying that yer stupid or anythin'. However, ya tend to overreact and over exaggerate things."

Serenity held her head down.

"Anyway," Joey, said, "What were ya doing with Kaiba?"

"He saved me," Serenity, said, "He saved me from jumping off the roof."

Joey said, "I see. Anything else you want ta tell me."

Serenity gulped. This would be the hardest part of all and to make matters worse, she had her mother to go through as well and although she was aware that their was a small chance that Joey would accept her relationship with Kaiba, as grudgingly as he could, Mrs Wheeler probably wouldn't be so considerate. She'd probably see Kaiba as the man that had her beaten and would probably yell at Serenity and abandon her for even thinking of going out with the man responsible for her pain.

"I… I, I… love him," she said nervously.

She closed her eyes and prepared for Joey's verbal lashing, but it never came. Serenity opened her eyes to look at Joey.

"You love him," was all he said.

"I'm sorry Joey," Serenity, replied, "But that's how I feel. I know that you hate him, but I can't help it. He saved my life and told me that he was sorry and I know he meant it."

She went up to Joey and prepared for him to berate her, but to her surprise, all Joey did was hug her.

"I'll be honest Serenity," he said, "I don't agree with this, but I'll put up with it so long as you're happy with it."

"You mean it Joey," Serenity said.

"Yeah," Joey, said, "You've been through enough devastation already and I'm yer big bro. I will support ya regardless of how I feel towards Kaiba. Not for him, but for you."

"Thanks Joey," Serenity said.

Joey smiled as Serenity left.

"Only for you," he thought, "If Kaiba breaks yer heart; I swear I'll kill 'im."

* * *

Outside, Serenity met Kaiba.

"That went better than I expected," Kaiba said.

"Joey's not doing this for you. He's doing it for me."

"That's all I ask," Kaiba, said, "Now let's go and see your mother."

Kaiba was sounding like his old self again, but Serenity could tell that most if not all of the coldness he once harboured in his heart was gone.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Serenity, thought, "I'd be worried if Kaiba had became a "Mr Nice Guy" overnight. No one changes that quickly,"

They came to Mrs Wheeler's room and Serenity tensed up. She was nervous about facing her mother. Whenever her mother had made her mind up about someone, it was almost impossible to change it. She had made her mind up about Joey and nothing seemed to convince her that she was wrong, though Serenity had to admit that her mother now had a more open mind about Joey. Serenity loved her mother, that much was true, but she didn't like the way she berated Joey. In Serenity's opinion, the reason why her mother saw her brother as a younger version of her ex was because he was a boy. Normally in divorce cases involving children, the children were kept together, but Mrs Wheeler had a friend who was a high-ranking lawyer and she had approached him and had him arrange the whole thing. The only thing that Serenity was thankful for was that her mother chose not to remarry. The lawyer that had helped her separate Joey and Serenity had been the son of one of Mrs Wheeler's father's friends.

"Don't worry about it," Kaiba, said, "At least you've got your brother's support."

Serenity flashed a weak smile. True, even if her mother wanted nothing to do with her afterwards, at least she still had Joey to count on. He may not like Kaiba, but she knew that he was willing to tolerate him for her. She knocked on the door.

"Come in," came Mrs Wheeler's voice.

Kaiba walked in first. Serenity waited for Mokuba, who had remained quiet to follow, but he just motioned for Serenity to go in.

"I'll wait out here," he said.

Serenity nodded and went in.

Mrs Wheeler said, "Excuse me, but who are you?"

"Seto Kaiba," Kaiba, said, "I'm the guy that had you beaten up and my conscience has caught up me. Now I'm here to apologise."

"You're the boy that Joseph hates so much?" Mrs Wheeler, said, "You have a lot of nerve doing what you did to my daughter."

"I know," Kaiba, said, "And I'm sorry."

Mrs Wheeler said, "Sorry doesn't cut it."

"I don't expect forgiveness," Kaiba, said, "All I expect is for you to know that I'm sorry. I saved your daughter from killing herself, so perhaps you can at least understand me."

Mrs Wheeler turned to Serenity and said, "Is this true, did you really try to kill yourself?"

Serenity nodded.

"You poor dear," she said, "You've been through enough."

She then turned to Kaiba, who was holding her hand.

"I believe thanks are in order," she said, "Just why did you save my daughter?"

"Like I said before, my conscience caught up with me and I realised that I love her."

Mrs Wheeler closed her eyes and Serenity feared that she'd lash out at them both.

"I see," she said, "And how do you feel about that Serenity?"

"I feel the same way mom. Please try to understand. I know what he did to me was wrong, but when he saved me, he apologised and I could tell that he really meant it."

Mrs Wheeler looked at Kaiba once again. Though he looked uncaring, his eyes gave it all away. Kaiba's pride was still evident, but Mrs Wheeler saw something else. It was a kind and caring heart.

"Serenity," Mrs Wheeler, said, "You do realise that you're only thirteen?"

"We realise our age difference," Kaiba, said, "But we're not planning on marriage or anything. If there is any advantage to your daughter being underage, it's that it gives us the perfect opportunity to take each step at a time and not rush into things."

Mrs Wheeler smiled and said, "Then you have my blessing as they say."

Serenity was surprised.

"What?" Mrs Wheeler, said, "You thought I would react differently? I'll admit that I do feel the way you expected me to react, but if I've learned anything from Joseph, it's to keep an open mind. I once thought that he was just like my ex, but when he went to that Duel Monsters tournament to get the prize money for your eye operation, I started to think that maybe I was wrong him. I still don't completely trust him, but I trust him enough to leave you with him."

Serenity smiled. From what she heard, Joey and his mother may not have made up, but at least they'd reached an understanding because Serenity knew that Joey would rather have Serenity staying with their mother than with there sorry excuse for a father. Serenity hated her father. In the divorce proceedings, he had been very uncaring. If he had had his way, he probably would've left Joey to die. Joey felt that his mother was the reason for the divorce, but that wasn't true. It was actually their father. He had been an abusive drunk and Mrs Wheeler had basically said that enough was enough and in her angered state, she felt that Joey was just like his old man just because he was a boy.

"Thank you mother," Serenity said.

"Serenity," Mrs Wheeler, said, "You'll always be my daughter and my sweet little girl. The reason I never remarried was because I knew what it would've done to you. I guess I can see now that I was wrong about Joseph. When it comes to you, he's a nice boy."

Kaiba smiled. He was happy that he'd been forgiven or if not forgiven, then tolerated. He knew that Joey still didn't like him, but for his sister's sake, he was willing to tolerate him and Kaiba in turn vowed to make an effort to tolerate Joey no matter what for Serenity's sake.

Mrs Wheeler said, "Kaiba, please take good care of my daughter and know that…"

"I know, I know," Kaiba, interrupted, "Hurt her and I'm a dead man."

Mrs Wheeler nodded and they both exited the room.

* * *

Outside, Mokuba said, "Hey guys, can we go now?"

"Of course Mokie," Kaiba said.

Mokuba looked up at his brother. Ever since he saw him with Serenity, he knew that his brother had managed to pull off the impossible, but he never expected him to go back to calling him Mokie. Now it had been a name reserved only for his school friends.

Serenity said, "Thank you Kaiba."

Kaiba said, "Serenity, I'd appreciate it if you called me Seto. You are the only other person other than Mokuba that can address me by my first name."

Serenity gasped with happiness and said, "I'm honoured Kai… Seto. Gee, that'll take a little getting used to."

Kaiba just smiled and said, "I'll take you to my home."

Serenity said, "Lead the way."

* * *

Author's Notes: Great chapter huh? So now that everything's said and done, there's not much more to do other than the aftermath. Kaiba may have changed somewhat, but some of his old personality is still there and don't worry about Tristen. He'll be fine and he'll learn to get over it. Next chapter will be the Grand Finale of this fic in which Kisara returns to see how Kaiba's getting on and she tells him more about her past. Not that he'll believe her, but Kisara feels that Kaiba must hear what she has to say. Anyway, till next time 


	11. Aftermath

**When vengeance goes too far**

**Chapter 11 (Finale)- Aftermath**

Disclaimer: I don't own any the characters from Yu-Gi-Oh. They are the property of Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, Konami and Shueisha comics.

It was a beautiful day in Domino City. The sun was shining and a cool breeze was in the air. Seto Kaiba was out at the back of his mansion working on his laptop. He worked away with a smile on his face, which was unusual. Normally he had a serious expression on his face whenever he worked. It had been a whole week since he'd apologised to Serenity for completely devastating her. Serenity had recovered just fine and Joey and Mrs Wheeler had surprisingly been more accepting of his relationship with her than both he and Serenity had thought, at least on the outside. Kaiba had become more open since then and tolerated the "geek squad" more than he did before, though he still felt resentment towards Yugi for defeating him, but he managed to get by. As for Joey, they both still fought, but on a lesser scale than before for Serenity's sake and Kaiba tried to lessen the insults on Joey. Joey did likewise because he loved his little sister, even if her choice of boyfriend wasn't to his liking.

"I'm glad to see that you're more at ease Seto," came a familiar voice.

Kaiba stopped working glanced in front of him and gasped. Standing before him was a familiar blue-haired and blue-eyed woman wearing only a brown ragged robe and a pair of primitive looking shoes.

"Kisara," he said, "So that wasn't a dream?"

"Think what you want Seto," Kisara, said, "Getting you to believe in those "Egyptian Fairytales", as you call them was not my intention. My intention was to save Serenity."

Kaiba said, "Well you succeeded in that."

"Indeed I did," Kisara said.

Kaiba said, "So why are you here?"

"To tell you the full story of my past, not that I expect you to believe it," Kisara, said "It's just I feel that you should hear this."

"Okay," Kaiba, said, "I'm all ears."

"Well," Kisara, began, "I'm not Egyptian. I'm from way up north, somewhere between in what today is known as Eastern Europe and Western Asia. As a child, I was captured by slave traders and I was brought to Egypt where a young boy rescued me. However, the slave traders caught him and I used my ka to save him."

"What is this term ka supposed to mean?" Kaiba, said, "I heard it from that Aknadin guy."

"A ka is a manifestation of a person's soul," Kisara, said, "The Egyptians believed that people's souls took on the forms of monsters. The monsters reflected the person's personality. However, the truth is that the monsters are from an alternative dimension. Sometimes there are small dimensional rips and some escape, but they can't manifest themselves, so they bond with people's souls and the person's personality determines their form. If a person is evil, the monster will become dark and grotesque looking. If a person was good, their ka would be pure. My ka, the Blue Eyes White Dragon was pure."

Kaiba nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Yep," he thought, "She's demented."

"Anyway," Kisara, continued, "After that, I disappeared into the city and kept a low profile until after that Bakura maniac and his ka, Diabound arrived and started causing trouble. After that, a group of people found me and tried to kill me. Being of a different skin colour, they believed that I was bad luck and tried to stone me to death, but then the High Priest Seto, the highest ranked of the Pharaoh's six Guardians happened to see what was going on. He saved my life and took me back to the palace, but fearing that the Pharaoh would side with the people, he kept her hidden. You see, he was hunting for a ka that was more powerful than Diabound and he was accompanied by Priest Shada, since it was Shada's Millennium Key that revealed how powerful a ka was. However, he made the mistake of telling Aknadin about my ka. My dragon far surpassed Diabound and in Aknadin's mind, even the Egyptian God Monsters."

"That's a load of bull," Kaiba, said, "The Blue Eyes White Dragon only has three thousand attack points and Slifer's attack points is equal to the number of cards in the player's hand time a thousand, Obelisk has four thousand attack points and Ra's attack points can either be determined on the monsters sacrificed to summon it or the player's life points."

"That's just Pegasus's rules," Kisara, said, "Duels back then were done differently. The attack and defence points on modern-day Duel Monsters cards don't represent the strength of the true monsters. They're just Pegasus's guesses based on the devastation of a monster's attack and a monster's capability of withstanding an attack. Anyway, once Aknadin found out about me, he decided to take my ka and give it to Seto, so that he could rule as Pharaoh. You see, Aknadin was the brother of the previous Pharaoh, Aknamkanon. They were twins and Aknamkanon only became heir to the throne because he cried louder as a baby. Aknadin was overcome with jealousy. It was because of this jealousy that Aknadin didn't tell his brother about how creating the Millennium Items required human sacrifices."

"What a pompous old coot," Kaiba, said, "If I believed you, I'd tell him to get a life."

"Anyway," Kisara, continued, "He was getting old and knew that his reign as pharaoh would be a short one, which is why he choose Seto because he was his son, a fact that he wasn't aware of. Aknadin had abandoned his wife and son in pursuit of the Millennium Items, which were originally intended to end a war and preserve peace, which they did, but Aknamkanon got all the credit and Aknadin's role was ignored, which only increased Aknadin's jealousy and slowly, but surely turned it to hate. He saw my ka as his ticket to revenge. However, extracting my ka, meant that I would die, but unfortunately, Aknadin was willing to kill me. He pitted me against some of the prisoners in the dungeons and their kas in the hopes of drawing out my dragon, but I refused to summon it. I knew what he was planning and I refused, but then Seto intervened and told Aknadin to stop. You see, thanks to Bakura, the Pharaoh had gone missing and Aknadin saw this as his opportunity to strike. He was more concerned about replacing his nephew rather than searching for him. He excuse was that the innocent had to be punished in this case for the greater good. Seto thought that he had lost his mind and managed to get me out of the dungeon, but not before I summoned my dragon to safe him. Seto hid me from Aknadin and left to go fight with the Pharaoh, who'd been found. However, I woke up and went searching for Seto and found him confronting Aknadin, or what Aknadin had become, the Shadow Magus. I decided to fight along side Seto, but Aknadin extracted my dragon and Seto killed him, but before he died. He sent his soul into Seto's mind and forced him to fight the Pharaoh. However, I managed to get through to him and kill Aknadin for good, but my physical body was dead. So instead, I merged my spirit with my dragon, just like Priest Mahad merged with his ka after Diabound killed him to become the Dark Magician and eternal servant of the Pharaoh to become Seto's eternal servant. My dragon may have looked the same, but it was my spirit within it. In effect, I became the Blue Eyes White Dragon and I am one with all three cards. You ripped the forth one, destroying a part of me, but that's forgivable."

Kaiba was speechless. He had to admit that even though he believed that it was all just a big fairytale, Kisara had succeeded in gaining his interest. He had to admit that it was touching.

"Like I said before, I don't expect you to believe me," Kisara, said, "I just felt like telling you that."

"I have to admit that you'd make a good storyteller," Kaiba said.

Kisara just laughed.

"So how are things between you, Serenity and Mokuba?"

"Fine," Kaiba, said, "I'm finding that I'm able to tolerate those geeks more than I did before, though it doesn't mean I'm their friend."

"That's so typical of you Seto," Kisara, said, "Anyway, that's all Yugi wants. If you can't be his friend, then at least tolerate him."

Kaiba smiled. Though he'd changed, some of his old personality was still there, that much was evident.

"I guess no matter how much people change, parts of their old self still remain in their hearts," Kisara said.

"Just as well," Kaiba, said, "Don't want to overdo it with kindness. Anyway, it'll be a few years before Serenity and I even consider marriage or even intimacy. If anything, the five-year age gap has allowed us to take this relationship a step at a time and I speak assuming that it'll last. However, anything's possible."

Kisara smiled and said, "Yes. Hopefully if you ever run into any trouble, you'll either resolve it or depart on good terms."

Kaiba said, "I hope so. Now that I've changed somewhat, I've looked back on myself and realised that mostly everything that Serenity said before she humiliated me said was true. I really don't like the person I was back then and I hope I don't turn back into that person again."

"I should hope not as well," Kisara, said, "However, I can now honestly say that you have won over your stepfather."

Kaiba smirked.

"Indeed I have," he thought, "How's that for you Gozaburo? I defeated you again."

Suddenly, Hobson came out and Kisara disappeared.

"Sorry to bother you Mr Kaiba, but Miss Wheeler's here," he said.

Kaiba smiled and said, "I'll be done in a minute Hobson. Escort her to the living room and tell her to make herself at home."

"Yes sir," Hobson said.

Kaiba then finished up what he was doing and closed his laptop and went inside.

"Don't worry Serenity," he thought, "I'll make sure nothing like what I did to you happens to you again."

Seto Kaiba's life had really taken a turn for the better, but from within the reaches of Kaiba's mind, Kisara kept on wondering if this change would last.

* * *

Author's Notes: That's it, the grand finale to this fic. I apologise for the delayed update. It's just that I've been having some computer problems lately. However, hopefully that's the end of them. Anyway, I thought I'd let you know my opinion on a ka, since the explanation that Shimon gave Yami seemed to clash with what was described in the Orichalcos Saga as an alternative dimension where monsters lived. I know that kas where only in the Japanese version and the manga, but I decided to blend the two versions together, as some other authors do because I find that the American version also leaves bits outs and edits some words out even though they're not offensive in any way. However, I like it anyway and I've only seen the American version, so that's why I'm not using everyone's Japanese names. 


End file.
